The causes of chest pain among Korean outpatients in primary care practice

Background: Chest pain is an important problem that primary care physicians encounter frequently. Although the leading causes of chest pain are maybe alternating due to lifestyle change and progression of diagnostic tool, there were no recent studies focused on the outpatients with chest pain in primary care settings. We retrospectively evaluated causes and characters of chest pain among Korean outpatients. Methods: Diagnosis and classification of chest pain were made among 244 patients who visited the outpatient clinic of family medicine which is located in one of the university hospital in Seoul, Korea from January, 2008 to December, 2008. Results: The number of patients who had "chest pain" as a chief complaint was 244. The causes of chest pain were musculoskeletal (43.4%), psychosocial (13.1%), esophageal (12.3%), respiratory (8.2%), cardiovascular (4.9%) origins. Conclusion: Recently, the proportion of the esophageal origin-chest pain has increased, but that of the cardiovascular origin was stationary.