title: Chest pain in primary care: epidemiology and pre-work-up probabilities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chest pain is a common complaint and reason for consultation. We aimed to study the epidemiology of chest pain with respect to underlying aetiologies and to establish pre-work-up probabilities for the primary care setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  We included 1212 consecutive patients with chest pain, aged 35 years and older, attending 74 general practitioners (GPs). GPs recorded symptoms and findings of each patient and provided follow-up information. An independent interdisciplinary reference panel reviewed clinical data of every patient and decided on the aetiology of chest pain at the time of patient recruitment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of chest pain among all attending patients was 0.7%. The majority (55.9%) of patients were women. Mean age was 59 (35-93) years. Of these patients, 53.2% had chest pains at the time of consultation and 29.6% presented with acute (<48 hours' duration) chest pain. Pain originating from the chest wall was diagnosed in 46.6% of all patients, stable ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in 11.1%, and psychogenic disorders in 9.5%; 3.6% had acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study adds important information about the epidemiology of chest pain as a frequent reason for consulting primary care practitioners. We provide updated pre-work-up probabilities for IHD for each age and sex category.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice/Family Medicine, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany. boesner@staff.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bösner
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haasenritter
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abu Hani
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Andreas C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Sönnichsen
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karatolios
authors.forename: Juergen R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.forename: Gangolf
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Seitz
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baum
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Donner-Banzhoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care