Long-term mortality and cause-specific death after non-cardiac chest pain: a multicentre cohort study of 160,245 patients in China

The study followed 160,245 patients with non-cardiac chest pain in China between 2017 and 2021. Within three years, 4,674 patients died (2.9%). Mortality increased significantly after age 60.5 years. Independent predictors of death were age 60.5 years and older, rural residence, and male sex. Three-year mortality ranged from 0.3% in younger urban women to 8.4% in older rural men. In older patients, cardiovascular diseases accounted for the majority of deaths (56.4%), while in younger patients, other non-cardiovascular causes (22.8%) and malignancies (20.8%) were predominant. The results suggest that non-cardiac chest pain is not uniformly benign and patients should be stratified according to risk.