Second leading cause of chest pain

The leading cause of cardiac chest pain is coronary artery disease, which affects over 18 million adults in the United States.

But do you know what the second leading cause is?

Recently, a doctor from the Cleveland Clinic chaired an international committee on the diagnosis and treatment of this disease and to raise awareness of its existence.

40,000 people each year will suffer from this rarely diagnosed disease, but many people don’t know it exists.

Allan Klein, director of the Pericardial Center Cleveland Clinic, said, “We know that roughly 5% of non-ischemic chest pain is pericarditis, but it’s only .1% of admissions to the hospital with pericarditis.”

Pericarditis is the inflammation of the sac that surrounds the heart, which causes sharp chest pain and, in some cases, difficulty breathing, but sometimes it keeps coming back.

“So, the biggest cause of what we call recurrent pericarditis is undertreatment of the acute episode,” Klein said.

There have been no guidelines for treating pericarditis in the U.S. until now. Doctor Klein worked with 22 experts all over the world to publish a consensus.

“This allows us in one place to have recommendations from all these experts, how you diagnose it and how you treat this,” Klein said.

The statement details how to utilize different types of imaging in diagnosis and what to look for if there is improvement.

“There is hope with the proper diagnostic testing, with the proper therapeutics. People will get better,” Klein said.

Better and lead healthy, productive lives.

If you are being treated for pericarditis, discuss with your doctor if you need to stop exercising.

Doctor Klein said people with pericarditis need to keep their heart rate below 100 BPM. However, there are some treatments, such as i-l-1 blockers, that can allow exercise after a month.