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Assessment of chest pain in primary care
Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Bristol, UK
E-mail: k.schroeder{at}bristol.ac.uk
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Abstract |
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 TOP Abstract The GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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Chest pain is a common presentation in primary care. One study has shown that 97% of patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) contact their GP first in rural areas and, even in urban areas, this figure is about 67%. However, although coronary heart disease (CHD) is still the biggest killer in the UK, the majority of people presenting with chest pain in general practice do not have angina or MI and musculoskeletal pain is much more common.
Primary care management GPs in training must learn how to manage primary contact with patients who have a cardiovascular problem and make timely, appropriate referrals on behalf of patients to specialist services, especially to rapid-access chest pain clinics.
The knowledge base
Specific problem-solving skills
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Assessment and management of chest pain needs to be decisive and quick, and the main challenge is not to miss cardiac or other serious causes, such as pulmonary embolus. In primary care, the key to appropriate management is a carefully conducted and focused history and clinical examination. Knowledge of the main features of the different causes of chest pain is important, and rarer causes always need to be considered. Careful documentation of the clinical findings – including important negative findings – is particularly crucial in those patients who are managed in primary care and are not being admitted to hospital.
This article aims to provide an overview of how to assess chest pain in general practice – and how to avoid the traps of wrongly assuming non-cardiac pain. It divides the topic into rapid assessment and management of suspected acute coronary syndromes (MI and unstable angina), assessment of patients with acute non-cardiac pain, assessment of patients with intermittent chest pain and further investigations that may be considered.
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Immediate management of acute cardiac chest pain in primary care |
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TOPAbstractThe GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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When a call for assistance is made for a patient with acute chest pain, it is important that the person answering the telephone can rapidly assess the likelihood of MI. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network recommend that five factors from the history should be considered together when assessing the likelihood of cardiac pain:
- The nature of the symptoms – central or band-like chest pain, often described as ‘crushing’ is typical of an acute coronary syndrome, particularly if it is associated with radiation to the neck, jaw or upper limbs, or is associated with other symptoms such as nausea or vomiting, sweating or breathlessness
- Ask about history of ischaemic heart disease – patients with prior history are more at risk of further episodes
- Ask about gender – male patients are more likely to have an acute coronary syndrome, particularly in the younger age groups
- Ask about age – risk of acute coronary syndromes increases with age, and
- Ask about the number of traditional cardiac risk factors present (particularly history of diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemia, smoking, and family history of cardiovascular disease – Box 1)
Box 1. Important risk factors for coronary heart disease when assessing chest pain
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In all cases, if an acute coronary syndrome is suspected, arrange for immediate transfer to hospital by ambulance. In acute MI, for thrombolysis to be effective, it must be given as soon as possible after the onset of pain. Seeing the patient prior to arranging transfer introduces unnecessary delays. If possible attend the patient once the ambulance has been called to assist – there is a lot that a GP can do that an ambulance crew cannot. Try to ensure that you have access to emergency cardiac drugs and an automated defibrillator when you attend the patient.
On arrival, take a brief history. There is no single clinical symptom that indicates a diagnosis of MI, however, presence of pleuritic chest pain suggests that the diagnosis is not an acute coronary syndrome. Once you have established the likelihood of MI from the history, perform a rapid assessment of cardiovascular status – perfusion, pulse, blood pressure, heart sounds and breath sounds (checking for pulmonary oedema). If possible, check an ECG. Presence of ST elevation suggests an MI and a normal ECG is an effective means of excluding MI.
If an acute coronary syndrome is still suspected, then:
- Give the patient a 300 mg aspirin orally (unless contraindicated)
- If available, give oxygen
- Give sublingual glyceryl trinitrate to act as a coronary artery vasodilator if systolic blood pressure is over 90 mmHg and pulse is less than 100 beats per minute
- If possible, insert an intravenous cannula
- Give intravenous analgesia (diamorphine 2.5–5 mg) and repeat after 15 min as necessary
- Give an intravenous antiemetic such as metoclopramide 10 mg
- If the patient is bradycardic give atropine 300 mg intravenously and further doses if needed to a maximum of 1.2 mg
- Thrombolysis may be appropriate in general practice in places where transfer to hospital takes more than half an hour. Special training and equipment is necessary
Hospital investigations used to confirm MI include cardiac enzymes and serial ECGs. ECG changes, specifically ST elevation and bundle branch block, are indications for acute thrombolysis. Cardiac enzymes are biochemical blood assays of molecules released when the heart is damaged. Troponins T and I are the preferred markers as they rise early after MI and are the most sensitive and specific markers. They are used to confirm diagnosis of MI and also for risk stratification.
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Patients with acute non-cardiac chest pain |
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TOPAbstractThe GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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Even if acute cardiac pain is thought unlikely, arrange to visit the patient at home, or see the patient in the surgery, the same day. Take a history from the patient. Start with open questions, even when under time pressure. Allow patients to tell their story in their own words and help them to express their worries. Ask them for possible explanations for their chest pain, which can give vital clues and may help you to address particular concerns directly without making (possibly wrong) assumptions.
Ask about:
- Site and nature of the pain – sharp, dull, central, peripheral, any radiation
- Duration – was there a trigger, for example an injury, that triggered the pain? Severe chest pain for a couple of hours is often more significant than pain that has been present for weeks
- Associated symptoms – such as breathlessness, fever, cough
- Provoking and relieving factors – is the pain worse on inspiration? Is it worse on movement? Is it brought on by exertion and relieved by rest?
- Past medical history – deep vein thrombosis, immobility or long-distance travel, recent surgery, clotting tendencies, respiratory disease such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidaeamia
- Family history – cardiovascular disease, clotting tendencies
- Drug history – cholesterol lowering drugs, thrombogenic medication such as the combined oral contraceptive
- Smoking history
Direct your initial examination at assessing whether the patient requires acute admission. Patient distress, breathlessness at rest, sweating, pallor, tachycardia (or bradycardia with heart rate under 40 beats per minute), and/or hypotension are reasons for immediate acute admission.
If the patient is reasonably well, and a non-cardiac cause of chest pain is suspected, try to find the cause of the pain. Do a full cardiovascular examination, including blood pressure in both arms, pulse rate and rhythm, jugular venous pressure and carotid pulse, apex beat and heart sounds. Check the lung fields for signs of infection, pleural rubs, heart failure and signs of pneumothorax. Check the skin for rashes and injuries. Palpate the chest wall for tenderness. If a musculoskeletal cause is suspected, test to see if movement of the chest wall reproduces the pain. Check for epigastric tenderness. Finally, check for swelling or tenderness of the legs. Examination may be entirely normal, particularly in patients with small pulmonary emboli, oesophageal or cardiac pain.
Management depends on suspected differential diagnosis. Table 1 lists the common differential diagnoses of acute chest pain in general practice and their key features. These can broadly be divided into cardiovascular causes, respiratory causes, musculoskeletal causes and abdominal causes. Options are immediate admission, further investigation in primary care or treatment in primary care. Have a low threshold for admission and always err on the side of caution if you are unsure of the diagnosis.
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Patients with intermittent chest pain |
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TOPAbstractThe GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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Intermittent chest pain is a common symptom in the UK. The main differential diagnosis is of musculoskeletal pain, oesophageal pain or angina. Angina affects around 2% of the population in UK. Incidence increases with age and it is more common among men than women. Coronary artery disease is the most common cause. Rarer causes include hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, hypoperfusion during an arrhythmia, arteritis, anaemia or thyrotoxicosis. Mortality (usually sudden death or due to MI or acute left ventricular failure) is about 0.5–4% per year. Mortality is doubled if there is co-existent left ventricular dysfunction.
Diagnosis is usually made on history:
- Episodic central-crushing or band-like chest pain, which may radiate to the jaw or neck and/or one or both arms suggests angina. Pain in the arms or neck may be the only symptom. Ask about frequency, severity, duration and timing of attacks. Oesophageal pain may be described as burning retrosternal pain, but is often indistinguishable from anginal pain
- Angina is often precipitated by exertion, cold, emotion and/or heavy meals. Pain stops with rest or glyceryl trinitrate spray. In contrast, musculoskeletal pain is related to movement and often specific movements rather than duration or intensity of movement. Oesophageal pain may be relieved by antacids. Note that glyceryl trinitrate spray may relieve oesophageal pain as well as angina
- Anginal pain may be associated with palpitations, sweating, nausea and/or breathlessness during attacks. Oesophageal pain may be associated with acid reflux
- The patient with anginal pain often has other risk factors for cardiovascular disease (Box 1) –particularly smoking, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemia or personal or family history of cardiovascular disease
Patients with angina usually have no physical signs, although anaemia may exacerbate symptoms. Check body mass index and blood pressure. Look for murmurs (especially an ejection systolic murmur of aortic stenosis) and evidence of peripheral vascular disease and carotid bruits. If angina cannot be excluded by examination, patients need further investigation.
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Initial primary care investigation |
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TOPAbstractThe GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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Do not delay acute admission to investigate a patient in primary care. For patients not being admitted, useful preliminary investigations include:
- Blood tests: consider a full blood count to exclude anaemia and as an indicator of infection, urea and electrolytes, fasting glucose and a fasting lipid profile
- ECG: for patients with intermittent chest pain, ECG is often normal between episodes of pain. Look for changes suggesting ischaemia (abnormal Q waves, ST elevation or depression, and abnormal T waves – see Figure 2), arrhythmias and evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy (Figure 3)
- Imaging: consider a chest X-ray to assess cardiac size or exclude pneumonia or pneumothorax
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Further investigations depend on the suspected diagnosis, duration and severity of symptoms. Some can be accessed directly by GPs, others require specialist referral. Rapid assessment chest pain services are effective, safe and often very helpful to rule out or confirm anginal pain in patients with a longer history of intermittent chest pains.
24-hour or ambulatory ECG
ECG monitoring equipment is worn for 24 h. Continuous monitoring may detect intermittent arrhythmias or ischaemia.
Exercise ECG:
ECG testing whilst the patient undergoes graded exercise on a treadmill/exercise bicycle. Local referral criteria vary. Used:
- For diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease – 75% have a positive test. There is a false positive rate of around 5%
- For assessment of exercise tolerance
- To assess response to treatment
- As a prognostic indicator
- For assessment of exercise-related arrhythmias
- As a guide to rehabilitation following acute MI
- For risk stratification in patients with obstructive cardiomyopathy
- To assess the need for further investigation
Exercise testing is usually carried out according to a standardized protocol (standard Bruce or modified Bruce protocol), that gradually increases the speed and gradient of the bicycle or treadmill. A number of parameters are assessed during the test: ECG changes, appearance of the patient, recurrence of symptoms and blood pressure and heart rate response. Exercise testing is not risk free and carries a mortality of one in 10,000. It is contraindicated if the patient is acutely systemically unwell, has had an MI within the past week or has unstable angina or acute pericarditis, myocarditis, severe heart failure, aortic stenosis or is known to have left main coronary artery stenosis. It is unsafe to perform an exercise test if a patient has an electrolyte disturbance. In addition, the trace may be impossible to interpret if the patient has left bundle branch block.
Coronary angiography
Always accessed via secondary care, coronary angiography involves passing a catheter, usually via the femoral or brachial artery, to the heart. The vast majority of patients who undergo cardiac catheterization have coronary angiography – usually in conjunction with left heart catheterization. Indications include:
- Diagnosis of coronary artery disease
- Assessment of angina uncontrolled by medication
- Assessment of suitability for coronary intervention
- Recurrence of angina following coronary angioplasty or bypass grafting
- A strongly positive exercise test
- Severity of coronary narrowing is described using percentage stenosis – >50% is usually regarded as significant
- To perform other procedures, e.g. angioplasty, valvuloplasty, cardiac biopsy
Complications include haemorrhage at the site of insertion (0.56%); arrhythmia (0.56%); MI (0.07%); stroke (0.07%) or thromboembolism elsewhere; trauma to the heart or blood vessels; infection; or even death (0.14%).
Radionucleotide imaging
Refer via secondary care. Radionucleotide imaging involves intravenous administration of a 
-emitting radionucleotide and gamma camera monitoring.
- Radionucleotide angiography: uses technetium99m-labelled red blood cells to calculate left ventricular ejection fraction and assess ventricular action
- Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy: uses thallium201 injected intravenously during exercise testing to demonstrate areas of poorly perfused myocardium
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance angiography
These investigations are being used increasingly in secondary care to provide detailed structural information about the heart and rapid angiographic images.
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Summary |
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TOPAbstractThe GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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Assessment of chest pain in primary care is difficult. There is no need to admit every patient with chest pain, but caution is needed not to miss significant and serious disease.
A focused but comprehensive history and examination are vital to the diagnosis, always considering the differential diagnosis when interpreting symptoms, signs and investigation results. Actively look for risk factors for serious underlying cause. Freshen up your ECG interpretation skills if necessary. If a patient is acutely unwell with chest pain and the cause is not clear, err on the side of caution and admit for further assessment. Rapid assessment chest pain services are effective, safe and often very helpful to rule out cardiac pain in patients with a longer history of intermittent chest pain.
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References |
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TOPAbstractThe GP Curriculum and...Immediate management of acute...Patients with acute non-cardiac...Patients with intermittent chest...Initial primary care...SummaryReferences |
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Dunn N, Everitt H, Simon C. Cardiovascular problems in general practice (2007) OUP ISBN: 97801992335384.
RCGP Curriculum statement number 15.1: Cardiovascular problems. Accessed via http://www.rcgp-curriculum.org.uk/extras/curriculum/statementDetails.aspx?id=23 [date last accessed 30.11.07].
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). No.93 - Acute coronary syndromes. Accessed via http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign93.pdf [date last accessed 30.11.07].
Mant J, McManus RJ, Oakes RAL, et al. Systematic review and modelling of the investigation of acute and chronic chest pain presenting in primary care. Health Technology Assessment (2004) 8:2.
Swap CJ, Nagurney JT. Value and limitations of chest pain history in the evaluation of patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes. Journal of the American Medical Association (2005) 23;294(20):2623–9.
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