John OsborneChief Medical Officer, ClearCardio LLC · Preventive cardiologist and Chief Medical Officer at ClearCardio

You Have Chest Pain? It Is Not Always a Heart Attack

21 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief presentation, the speaker explains that only about 10% of patients who present to the emergency department with chest pain are actually experiencing a heart attack. The remaining 90% have a wide variety of non‑cardiac causes. Specific conditions highlighted as heart‑attack mimics include gallbladder disease, pleurisy, pericarditis, esophageal spasm, gastro‑esophageal reflux disease (GERD) or heartburn, and other lung‑related inflammations. The overall message is that chest pain is a symptom with many possible origins, and clinicians must consider these alternatives when evaluating patients.

Chapters

Gallbladder disease, as an example, pleurisy, pericarditis, inflammation around the lungs or the sac around the heart, can mimic symptoms due to heart attack. Only about 10% of people who show up in the emergency room actually are having a heart attack or have chest pain or symptoms from the heart. The other 90% could be any number of other things that can cause chest pain. So gallbladder disease, as an example, pleurisy, pericarditis, inflammation around the lungs or the sac around the heart can mimic symptoms due to heart attack, but it's not a heart attack. It even could be esophageal problems or spasm of the esophagus or food pipe or reflux or heartburn, and many other symptoms and many other causes can cause symptoms that might mimic a heart attack