A dozen conditions cause rib and chest wall pain, and they all feel worryingly similar. This quiz matches your symptom pattern to the most likely explanation.
A broken rib, an inflamed cartilage joint, an irritated nerve, a slipping rib and a torn junction can all hurt in the same few square inches of your chest — and several of them are invisible on a normal X-ray. That is why so many people with rib pain are told “nothing is wrong” while something clearly is.
This quiz asks the same questions a chest wall specialist asks first: how the pain started, where it lives, what it feels like, and what sets it off. It takes about a minute, it's anonymous, and there's no sign-up. Your result is a well-founded starting point, not a verdict — use it to read the right condition page and arrive at an appointment asking better questions.
Only an examination can confirm what is actually going on. If you have crushing central chest pain, severe breathlessness, you're coughing up blood or you feel faint, skip the quiz — call 999 now.
Which rib problem do I have? A one-minute guide
No single answer is decisive, but the combination usually is. A sharp click at the lower rib margin when you twist tells a very different story from a burning band around one side of the chest — and the quiz knows the difference.
An injury, a coughing fit, an operation — or nothing at all.
The breastbone, the rib margin, or one band around the chest.
Sharp, burning, aching, or clicking.
Breathing, twisting, pressing, or lying down.
Pain after an injury or violent coughing, worse with every breath. Proper treatment is more than painkillers.
Injury · chronicA break that was months ago but still hurts. Unhealed ends are fixable.
MechanicalClicking, popping or a rib that feels like it moves; confirmed by a 30-second examination.
InflammatoryInflammatory pain where the ribs meet the breastbone, with no injury story.
Nerve painBurning, electric pain in a band along one rib. A nerve problem, treatable at the nerve.
Injury · acuteYou felt a pop or tear, but the X-ray was normal. Cartilage never shows on X-rays.
GrowthA lump on a rib or the breastbone. Most are benign; all deserve an answer.
StructuralA bulge that appears when you cough and settles at rest.
Injury · acuteA broken breastbone, usually from a seatbelt, that deserves a follow-up plan.
UnexplainedThe cardiologist cleared your heart, but nobody told you what the pain actually is.
Call 999 or attend A&E for any of these. They need an ambulance, not an algorithm.
Plain X-rays image bone and air, so cartilage injuries are invisible on them. A normal X-ray means “no fracture”, not “nothing wrong”.
Slipping rib syndrome is typically diagnosed with a simple physical examination, yet patients commonly wait years for it because that test is rarely performed outside specialist clinics.
Cardiology excludes the heart, emergency medicine excludes the fracture, and the chest wall itself belongs to thoracic surgery, which most patients are never referred to. This quiz exists to shortcut that maze.
This quiz and every condition page it links to were written and medically reviewed by Mr Marco Scarci MD(Hons) FRCS(Eng) FCCP FACS FEBTS, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust with over 20 years' experience, more than 5,000 minimally invasive thoracic procedures and 170+ peer-reviewed publications (GMC 6159768). He runs a dedicated chest wall clinic across five London locations, seeing patients within days without a GP referral.
Medically reviewed by Mr Marco Scarci, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon. Last reviewed: September 2026.
No. It's a structured way of matching your symptoms to the recognisable patterns of common rib and chest wall conditions, so you can read about the most likely explanation and seek the right help. A diagnosis requires a physical examination and, often, imaging chosen to match it. Treat your result as a well-informed starting point.
Because X-rays only show bone and air. Cartilage injuries, slipping ribs, nerve pain and muscle tears are all invisible on a plain film, so a “normal X-ray” only rules out a fracture and a collapsed lung — it says nothing about the tissues most rib pain actually comes from. Different tests — dynamic ultrasound, MRI, or simply the right physical examination — detect those.
It can tell you whether your pattern fits a fracture — sudden onset after injury or hard coughing, sharp pain with every breath, tenderness at one spot. It cannot confirm one; that needs an examination and usually imaging. If a fracture seems likely, the quiz will say so and point you to what proper fracture care involves, because broken ribs need more than being sent home with painkillers.
Musculoskeletal causes dominate — costochondritis and other cartilage-junction problems, muscle strains, intercostal nerve irritation and slipping rib syndrome between them account for most non-fracture rib pain. Which one fits you depends on the pattern: inflammation tends to arrive without an injury story, nerve pain burns in a band, and slipping ribs click.
Seek urgent help for crushing central chest pain, severe breathlessness, coughing up blood or feeling faint — those are 999 symptoms, not rib symptoms. Short of an emergency, see a specialist promptly for pain after significant trauma, pain that wakes you at night, a lump that is growing, unexplained weight loss or fever with the pain, or any rib pain that has lasted more than a few weeks without an explanation.
You'll be linked to a detailed page about your most likely condition — what it is, how it's properly diagnosed, and how it's treated, from simple measures to surgery. If you want it looked at, the clinic sees new patients within days at five London locations, no GP referral needed, with all major UK insurers accepted alongside self-pay. Bring your quiz result; it makes a genuinely useful opening to the consultation.
If your result rings true — or if nothing does — a consultation settles it: a proper chest wall examination, imaging that can actually see the problem, and a plan. Appointments within days at five London clinics.
