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Medical Author:

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Costochondritis Diagnosis

Costochondritis is diagnosed by the history and physical examination rather than by specific laboratory or imaging tests. Tests are sometimes used to rule out other conditions that can have similar symptoms but are more dangerous, such as heart disease.

• The doctor will try to reproduce tenderness over the affected ribs. There is usually no significant visible swelling.
• Blood work and a chest X-ray are usually not helpful in diagnosing costochondritis, but these may be used to rule out other causes of chest pain. However, after sternum surgery, or for people at risk for heart disease, doctors will be more likely to do tests if you have chest pain and possible costochondritis to be certain you do not have any infection or other serious medical problems.
• They will look for signs of infection such as redness, swelling, pus, and drainage at the site of surgery.
• A more sophisticated imaging study of the chest, a gallium scan, can be used to check for infection. It will show increased uptake of the radioactive material gallium in an area of infection.
• In situations of possible infection, the white blood cell count may be elevated.
• Chest X-ray is obtained if pneumonia is a suspected cause of chest pain.
• ECG and other tests will be done if a heart problem is considered.