title: [Acute chest pain].
abstract: Acute chest pain is the leading cause of hospital admissions worldwide and absorbs extensive financial and hospital resources for diagnosis and management. A missed diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction is still associated with a poor outcome and represents one of the most common reasons for lawsuits in the USA. The present article gives a summary on the features of cardiac and non-cardiac chest pain, provides an overview of diagnostic algorithms, and points out the important differential diagnoses.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Innere Medizin III, Medizinische Klinik der Universität Heidelberg.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kurz
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Katus
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giannitsis
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D013577:Syndrome