Adam Maguire

A pain in your chest can often be related to stress, indigestion, muscle strain or even gallbladder or lung ailments.

So how do you know if the condition is serious?

‘‘The place to begin always is with your family doctor,” says Dr Declan Sugrue, consultant cardiologist at the Mater Private Hospital, which has the largest specialist cardiac team in Ireland. ‘‘They will typically know their man and will know if you’re a hypochondriac or a straight shooter.”
With growing pressure to consider whether the food we are consuming is damaging our health, and a growing market for health products that claim to lower cholesterol and look after our hearts, individuals are beginning to take more responsibility for their personal wellbeing.

‘‘When countries become prosperous, people become wealthier and more educated, they no longer have to worry about where the next meal is coming from and so they start focusing on their health,” says Sugrue.

Although the potential number of causes of chest pain are huge, Sugrue says a GP will generally be able to pinpoint if the pain you are complaining about is sufficiently worrisome that it should be checked out by an expert.

Indicators that the pain could be heart-related include a personal or family history of heart complaints, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, if you are a smoker or suffer from diabetes. Age could also be a factor in deciding the seriousness of the complaint. ‘‘There are always qualifiers, context is everything,” says Sugrue.

Despite the fact that chest pain is often related to a minor or temporary complaint, speed is vital in diagnosis and treatment in order to identify or rule out serious conditions.

In recognition oft his need the Mater Private Hospital has launched a chest pain clinic which allows GPs to admit patients directly for expert analysis.

‘‘Before patients would have to wait for an appointment to see a consultant in their offices so the waiting period would vary. Some consultants are very busy and it could be months before a patient gets seen,” says Sugrue.

The new facility, which offers the same standard of service and expertise as before but now with far more operating hours, gives patients with immediate chest-pain concerns quick and uncomplicated access to the facilities so their complaint can be dealt with at speed.

‘‘This is an emergency service, so if your family doctor thinks your complaints should be checked out they phone up and you can be seen immediately,” Sugrue says.

Not all patients admitted to the clinic will have something serious to contend with. ‘‘Medicine being what it is you inevitably have to wade through the worried-well in order to get to the serious trouble. I see lots of healthy people who think there might be something wrong with them or who’s doctor thinks there might be something wrong with them, and that’s alright,” says Sugrue.