Study: Unexplained Pain In The Chest Could Be A Deadly Sign

If you know someone with an undiagnosed pain in the chest and the upper abdominal region then it's time to take heed. A team of Danish researchers from The Aarhus University Hospital have conducted a study on unexplained heart aches which signifies the dangers mentioned here. The report says that pain in the chest or upper gastrointestinal tract could be a warning sign from alcohol-related causes, pneumonia or lung cancer. The unexplained pain could also be a presage for ischemic heart disease - a type of heart disease which is caused by restricted blood flow in the cardiac arteries. Endoscopy results may not reveal the true cause of the pain but it should never be disregarded as according to the research study this pain could be a symptom of the ischemic heart disease. Previous studies to decipher the nature of the pain have given undetermined results as their have been other hitherto undiscovered pain causing factors like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or ulcers in the patients. Researchers hadn't really tried to isolate many medical cases with truly unexplained inflictions of the chest and upper abdominal regions. A serious focus group was needed to predict the future course for the ischemic heart disease. This time around medical researchers looked at heart disease risk and death over a longer 10-year period in 386 patients with pain in the chest or upper abdomen but showing signs of normal upper endoscopy and no existing heart disease. To compare relative test results the doctors also took 3,793 control patients in a carefully selected sample. (A controlled experiment compares the results from an experimental sample against a control sample, which is practically identical to the experimental sample except for the one cause whose effect is being tested.) The researchers filtered out patients with reflux, heartburn or other symptoms of GERD or ulcers from the sampled patients. The study found out that patients with some unexplained pain had a 60 percent greater risk to be hospitalized over the next 10 years. Their mortality rates were more likely to be double than others as they were likely to die within the first year of their endoscopy. The mortality risk was extended to about five years for this class of patients. Furthermore, risk of death from alcoholism, pneumonia or lung cancer was three times to that of the general population. The study ended with this conclusion - Unexplained chest pain and upper abdominal pain in patients with a normal endoscopy test is a strong marker for ischemic heart disease and increased mortality.