ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of a 30-year-old woman who is presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with a 2-day history of chest pain. Chest pain is an extremely common presentation in the ED and can be caused by diseases carrying significant morbidity and mortality, such as myocardial infarction (MI), pulmonary embolism (PE) and aortic dissection. It is therefore crucial that physicians are able to quickly differentiate through the various causes of chest pain and initiate urgent treatment if necessary. In this case, the patient is young, has no significant cardiac risk factors and has atypical chest pain, which makes a cardiac cause very unlikely. The investigations that need to be performed when evaluating chest pain depend largely on the history and clinical suspicion. This patient should be reassured that her pain is unlikely to have a sinister cause, and would be safe to discharge home with advice to take oral analgesics since costochondritis is suspected.
