Chest pain may be a
symptom of a number of serious
disorders and is, in general, considered a
medical emergency. Even though it may be determined that the
pain is noncardiac in origin (does not come from a
heart problem), this is often a diagnosis of exclusion made after ruling out more serious causes of the pain. Cardiac (heart-related) chest pain is called
angina pectoris. Pain in the
chest wall muscles is called by other names, such as
pectoralgia,
stethalgia,
thoracalgia, and
thoracodynia.