Chest pain can be cardiac or non-cardiac in origin. Cardiac causes include angina, myocardial infarction, and pericarditis while non-cardiac causes include pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, gallbladder disease, and musculoskeletal disorders. Characteristics of ischemic cardiac chest pain include a central, pressing or squeezing quality that radiates to the jaw/arm and is provoked by exertion. Differential diagnosis of chest pain requires evaluating characteristics like location, quality, duration and associated features to determine cardiac vs. non-cardiac etiology.