Emergency Department Visits for Chest Pain and Abdominal Pain: United States, 1999–2008

Chest and abdominal pain are the most common reasons that persons aged 15 years and over visit the emergency department (ED) (1). Because EDs provide both emergency and nonemergency care (2,3), visits for these symptoms may vary in their acuity. Advanced medical imaging is often ordered to assist in both diagnosing and ruling out serious illness associated with these symptoms (4,5). This report describes trends in visits for chest and abdominal pain in adults and the seriousness of illness and use of imaging in these visits. All data shown are for persons aged 18 and over whose visit was not injury related