Authors:

Abstract

Introduction: Unlike in adults, chest pain in children is usually benign, although it can be a cause of anxiety to the child and family.

Objective: Long term follow up of paediatric cases, referred to our clinic because of chest pain, since we started the paediatric cardiology service in PSCC-Qassim in 2006.

Method: A retrospective review was done of all children referred with a complaint of chest pain to the paediatric cardiology service in PSCC-Qassim from 2006 to 2018. Data were collected from the department database. Families were contacted to find out about the child’s chest pain and any other medical problems.

Results: Two hundred and forty two children were referred to our clinic for evaluation of chest pain from 2006. Of them 56% were girls. The mean age at referral was 9.1±2.4 years and the mean weight at referral was 30±12 kg. On initial presentation, only 6.6% patients reported that the chest pain had some relation to exercise. The commonest symptom was palpitation. On clinical examination, 20.6% patients had innocent murmurs. The electrocardiogram (ECG) was normal in 231 (95.4%) of the cases. Two hundred and nineteen (90.5%) cases had normal echocardiographic findings. There was no statistical significance between the presence of a murmur and abnormal echocardiographic findings. Follow up was done through telephone contact of families of cases seen in the clinic. The mean age at follow up was 12.8 ± 3.3 years. One hundred and ninety five (80.6%) stated that their children no longer have any chest pain. Forty eight (19.8%) reported that their children still had nonspecific chest pain that did not interfere with their day to day activities. Thirteen (5.4%) stated that their children had other medical problems like asthma, anaemia and hyperthyroidism. None of them reported sudden cardiac death in any of the children.

Conclusions: In this study carried out in the paediatric cardiology service in PSCC-Qassim, chest pain in children was benign. Follow up reported no sudden cardiac deaths in any of our cases.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2021; 50(1): 83-86

Keywords: Chest pain, Paediatrics, Palpitation, Sudden cardiac death