Chest Pain Center
If you are having severe chest pain and think you may be having a heart attack, speed is very important. You should activate the emergency medical system by dialing 911. This will bring trained personnel--emergency medical technicians or firefighters with special medical training--who will take you to a hospital quickly and safely.
Because chest pain can indicate potential heart problems, people worry when they or their loved ones develop chest pain. It is important to know that most chest pain is not caused by heart problems. There are many people who have chest pain even though they have normal hearts, just as there are people with heart disease who have unusual symptoms or no pain.
The only way to know for sure if chest pain is caused by heart disease is to be evaluated by a doctor and undergo certain tests. Keeping track of your pain is helpful in the evaluation process.
The UI Chest Pain Center is an area within the UI Hospitals and Clinics Emergency Treatment Center that is specifically designed to diagnose chest pain. Our patients are evaluated immediately for a heart attack and are observed for an 8–12 hour period to better determine if they need a hospitalization or if they can be safely discharged. Studies have shown that making the diagnosis of a heart attack upon initial arrival at an emergency room can be very difficult. Chest pain centers adequately allow physicians to properly diagnose and treat chest pain patients.
Our patients also receive a cardiac risk assessment, healthy heart education, and counseling by a cardiac rehabilitation specialist. The goal is to provide custom strategies for reducing the risks of coronary artery disease.