Pleuritic Chest Pain in a Young Female: A Reminder for Acute Health Care Providers

Chest pain is one of the most common reasons for emergency department visits. Emergency medicine doctors should focus their initial assessment on patients’ stability. History, physical examination, and ancillary testing should exclude serious causes such as acute coronary syndrome, acute aortic synd...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Aibek E. Mirrakhimov, Alaa M. Ali, Carolyn Stroncek
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2014-01-01
Series:Case Reports in Emergency Medicine
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/824786
Description
Summary:Chest pain is one of the most common reasons for emergency department visits. Emergency medicine doctors should focus their initial assessment on patients’ stability. History, physical examination, and ancillary testing should exclude serious causes such as acute coronary syndrome, acute aortic syndromes, pulmonary embolism, pneumothorax, esophageal perforation, and rupture as well as pericardial tamponade. Young age should not be used alone as a predictor of a benign condition. Below we present a case of a 24-year-old female who was found to have ascending aortic dissection and was sent for emergent surgery.
ISSN:2090-648X
2090-6498