title: Chest pain. How serious is it?
abstract: The very thought of chest pain often brings terror to patients and health care providers. Chest pain typically invokes a "worst case" scenario of massive myocardial infarction (MI) resulting from cardiovascular disease (CD) and requiring immediate medical attention. However, chest pain is a common complaint suffered by most people at some time in their lives. People complaining of chest pain may be young, middle-aged, or elderly, and they may or may not be under a health care provider's care. Chest pain may be a symptom of a variety of disorders other than CD. Therefore it is helpful to differentiate quickly between the types of chest pain to determine whether immediate assistance is necessary.
authors.affiliation: Florida State University's School of Nursing, Tallahassee, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Tucker
mesh_terms: D002637:Chest Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000379:methods; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors