One hundred consecutive patients (54 girls, 46 boys) referred to a pediatric cardiology department with the primary complaint of chest pain were evaluated. The age distribution was 2.5-16.0 years (mean 11.3 years for girls and 9.9 years for boys). The history showed 17% of patients with chest pain, 22% with heart disease, and 19% with recent death in the family. The time course of the pain was longer than 1 week in 92 patients. Localization was on the left precordium in 60 patients, and there was no radiation from the original site in 66 cases. Ninety-two percent of cases were idiopathic in origin. Of the 74 patients who had a psychiatric interview, 55 (74%) had psychiatric symptoms and 5 required psychiatric care. Anxiety, conversion disorder, and depression were the main psychiatric symptoms.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.