Lubrano Riccardo, Martucci Vanessa, Marcellino Alessia, Sanseviero Mariateresa, Sinceri Alessandro, Testa Alessia, Frasacco Beatrice, Gizzone Pietro, Del Giudice Emanuela, Ventriglia Flavia, Bloise Silvia
Department of Paediatrics, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161 Roma, Italy.
Children (Basel). 2023 Jan 30;10(2):246. doi: 10.3390/children10020246.
We compared the number of accesses, causes, and instrumental evaluations of chest pain in children between the pre-COVID-19 era and the COVID-19 period and analyzed the assessment performed in children with chest pain, highlighting unnecessary examinations.
We enrolled children with chest pain admitted to our emergency department between January 2019 and May 2021. We collected demographic and clinical characteristics and findings on physical examinations, laboratory tests, and diagnostic evaluations. Then, we compared the number of accesses, causes, and instrumental assessments of chest pain between the pre-COVID-19 era and the COVID-19 era.
A total of 111 patients enrolled (mean age: 119.8 ± 40.48 months; 62 males). The most frequent cause of chest pain was idiopathic (58.55%); we showed a cardiac origin in 4.5% of the cases. Troponin determination was performed in 107 patients, and the value was high only in one case; chest X-rays in 55 cases and echocardiograms in 25 cases showed pathological findings, respectively, in 10 and 5 cases. Chest pain accesses increased during the COVID-19 era ( < 0.0001), with no differences in the causes of chest pain between the two periods.
The increase in accesses for chest pain during the COVID-19 pandemic confirms that this symptom generates anxiety among parents. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that the evaluation of chest pain is still extensive, and new chest pain assessment protocols in the pediatric age group are needed.
我们比较了新冠疫情前时代和新冠疫情期间儿童胸痛的就诊次数、病因及器械评估情况，并分析了对胸痛儿童进行的评估，突出不必要的检查。
我们纳入了2019年1月至2021年5月期间在我院急诊科就诊的胸痛儿童。我们收集了人口统计学和临床特征以及体格检查、实验室检查和诊断评估的结果。然后，我们比较了新冠疫情前时代和新冠疫情时代胸痛的就诊次数、病因及器械评估情况。
共纳入111例患者（平均年龄：119.8±40.48个月；男性62例）。胸痛最常见的病因是特发性（58.55%）；我们发现4.5%的病例有心脏源性病因。107例患者进行了肌钙蛋白测定，仅1例值升高；55例进行了胸部X线检查，25例进行了超声心动图检查，分别有10例和5例显示病理结果。新冠疫情时代胸痛就诊次数增加（<0.0001），两个时期胸痛病因无差异。
新冠疫情期间胸痛就诊次数增加证实了这种症状会引起家长的焦虑。此外，我们的研究结果表明，胸痛评估仍然广泛，需要在儿童年龄组制定新的胸痛评估方案。
