Unexpected frequency of idiopathic costochondral pain.

A study of the records of patients seen in a two-year period in a private gynecologic practice and a one-year period in the emergency department of a general hospital was prompted by the incidence of chest wall pain diagnosed as costochondral pain. The study revealed 76 women in the former practice and 156 men and women in the latter with this condition. Physicians need to understand this symptom complex and be aware of the frequency of its occurrence in patients presenting with chest pain and fearing breast cancer or cardiac disease. Costly, intensive investigation can be avoided when careful, deep palpation of the costochondral junction discloses pain traversing the rib under the breast, leading to a diagnosis of idiopathic costochondral pain.