Key result
Noncardiac chest pain affects over 70 million Americans annually, often requiring extensive diagnostic evaluation to differentiate from cardiac pain and identify esophageal sources.
Why the study?
What are the diagnostic evaluation strategies for patients with noncardiac chest pain?
What are the diagnostic evaluation strategies for patients with noncardiac chest pain?
This review outlines the diagnostic approach for noncardiac chest pain, emphasizing the role of gastroenterological evaluation once cardiac causes are ruled out.
Gastroenterological evaluation follows cardiac exclusion; leaves open standardized, efficient diagnostic algorithms for esophageal sources.
Noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) is a common and challenging clinical problem. It is estimated that more than 70 million Americans (23% of the population) suffer from this condition yearly. Patients with NCCP represent a diagnostic dilemma. Their chest pain is often indistinguishable from cardiac pain leading to extensive and expensive evaluations. Once coronary artery disease and other cardiac and pulmonary sources of chest pain are excluded, patients are frequently referred to gastroenterologists to look primarily for esophageal sources of pain. A variety of diagnostic tests are available to the practicing clinician to identify the origin of pain, including ambulatory pH testing, esophageal motility, upper endoscopy, provocative testing and even therapeutic trials.
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Fass et al. (2011) conducted a review in Noncardiac chest pain. Noncardiac chest pain affects over 70 million Americans annually, often requiring extensive diagnostic evaluation to differentiate from cardiac pain and identify esophageal sources.
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