Chest Pain: The Only Symptom of Gastric Ulcer / General Medicine

ABSTRACT

A 51-year-old woman presented with a 3-month history of left-sided chest pain. The pain was colicky, without associated tenderness, and involved the T5-8 thoracic dermatomes. We suspected referred pain from peptic ulcer, and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed multiple ulcers in the middle-third of the gastric lesser curvature. As the patient was on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) treatment for tension headaches, NSAID-induced peptic ulcer was diagnosed. Proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) treatment resulted in prompt pain relief. There are few reports of chest pain as the sole presenting symptom of peptic ulcer. Nevertheless, although rare, peptic ulcer should also be considered in the differential diagnosis of chest pain.