# Chest pain



## alices (Jun 8, 2012)

Hello everyone can someone please tell me how you would code, final dx 1) chest pain 2) recent myocardial infarction? no where in the chart does it say pt had or when she had a myocardial infarction except for his final dx, it does say in the hpi that pt had neck and jaw tighness, chest pain the past 6 days with pain decreasing..I'm thinking i am probably going to have to send back to get clarification..thank you for all the help..alice


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## mitchellde (Jun 8, 2012)

It is important to know when the MI occurred since MIs are coded as acute for 28 days.  But with no further clarification you can only code the chest pain as just that chest pain.


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## limpson (Jun 17, 2012)

Hi Debra,

Where can I find an official reference to the 28 days? I am unable to find it in the ICD-9-CM coding guidelines.

Thanks, 

Larry


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## mitchellde (Jun 17, 2012)

My apologies, I have been teaching ICD-10 CM and imposed that guideline here.  however if you look at the  5th digit explanation you see under the fifth digit of 2 it states to use the acute code with a fifth digit of 2 for subsequent encounters for an MI that has received initial treatment bu is still less than eight weeks old.  so for ICD-9 the timeframe is 8 weeks.


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## limpson (Jun 17, 2012)

Thank you for the clarification and info mate 


<apparently, I need to sharpen my eyes as well as my pencil lead, eh?!>


Larry


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## alices (Jun 18, 2012)

*re-chest pain*

thank you for your help it is appreciated..alice


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