To determine if you have costochondritis, you need to examine the following aspects: 1) the presence or absence of symptoms; 2) the location of local pain; 3) the degree of pain; 4) the need for examinations such as X-rays, CT, and MRI. Costochondritis is not an inflammation caused by a microbial infection, like bacteria or viruses, but a localized sterile reactive inflammation caused by strain, exercise, cold or other trauma. This inflammation occurs intermittently, usually when there are triggers, and gradually disappears when the triggers are reduced or eliminated. Most of the costochondritis is located in the costal cartilage, that is, the rib margin. Our ribs are divided into cortical bone, cancellous bone and cartilage, and most of the cartilage is a kind of hyaline fibrous cartilage, which is not like our real bone, it is very soft and is a kind of connective tissue. After inflammation, there will be local pain, mostly on pressure, usually caused by prolonged exertion or cold in the elderly or adolescents. So once you get costochondritis, the local pain is very pronounced, and it is intermittent and does not heal for a long time. It is very important to have an experienced physician to make a definitive diagnosis and to examine the patient based on the medical history. If you want to examine further, you need to do an MRI to clarify whether there are local edema signals and whether there is an inflammatory reaction, which are very critical. Of course, in case of other rheumatic or rheumatoid arthritis, this local reaction may also occur.