BACKGROUND

Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) can be excluded in the majority of patients with unspecific chest pain. The remainder have what is generally referred to as non-cardiac chest pain, which has been associated with gastrointestinal, neuromusculoskeletal, pulmonary, and psychiatric causes.

AIM

To assess morbidity and mortality following a new diagnosis of non-specific chest pain in patients without established IHD.

DESIGN OF STUDY

Population-based cohort study with nested case-control analysis.

SETTING

UK primary care practices contributing to the General Practice Research Database.

METHOD

Patients aged 20-79 years with chest pain who had had no chest pain consultation before 2000 and no IHD diagnosis before 2000 or within 2 weeks after the index date were selected from the General Practice Research Database. The selected 3028 patients and matched controls were followed-up for 1 year.

RESULTS

The incidence of chest pain in patients without established IHD was 12.7 per 1000 person-years. In the year following the index date, patients who had chest pain but did not have established IHD were more likely than controls to receive a first IHD diagnosis (hazard ratio [HR] = 18.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 11.6 to 28.6) or to die (HR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.3 to 4.1). Patients with chest pain commonly had a history of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD; odds ratio [OR] = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.5 to 2.7) or went on to be diagnosed with GORD (risk ratio 4.5, 95% CI = 3.1 to 6.4).

CONCLUSION

Patients with chest pain but without established IHD were found to have an increased risk of being diagnosed with IHD. Chest pain in patients without established IHD was also commonly associated with GORD.