Chest pain in children – Cardiology Basics
Chest pain in children – Cardiology Basics
Even though chest pain in children is a common symptom, unlike in adults it is seldom due to heart disease. Most often the cause of chest pain in children is not a major life threatening disease. Still chest pain can cause restriction of activities, absence from school and cause of anxiety to children and their parents.
A good history and physical examination can give a lot of information to exclude any potentially serious condition causing chest pain, though it is rare. Costochondritis is a common cause of chest pain in adolescent and preadolescent girls. It can be caused by viral illness or due to frequent coughing due to respiratory illness. It can be identified by localised tenderness at costochondral joint.
Injury to muscles and bones of the chest can be a cause of chest pain in children, but this cause is usually obvious from the history. But this can also occur following the lifting of heavy objects, frequent coughing or a lot of aerobic exercise.
Stress or anxiety is also a common cause of chest pain though it may be difficult to elucidate because the cause of stress may not be obvious. Exam related stress and other usual causes of stress have to be thought of. Stress can also cause worsening of chest pain due to another cause. Hence other causes have to be excluded before attributing a sole etiological role for stress.
Pleurisy is another important cause of chest pain which characteristically increases o...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
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