All about abnormal respiratory sounds

Abnormal sounds are also called respiratory sounds. Here is an inventory of common random breath sounds with explanations and causes. Learn about sounds and properly document them. If possible, seek educational experiences to listen to different respiratory sounds!

• is a continuous, high-pitched musical sound during exhalation or inspiration. Wheezing is the results of narrowing of the airways. The commonest causes are asthma, emphysema, anaphylaxis, a foreign body within the foremost bronchus, or a set lesion comparable to a tumor.
• they’re characterised by low sounds heard during inhalation and exhalation. Rhonchi is a lower pitched variant of wheezing. It has the character of snoring, gurgling or rattling. Rhonchi, unlike wheezing, may disappear after coughing, suggesting that secretions play a task. Although many doctors still use the term rhonchi, some prefer to call the characteristic musical sounds simply high-pitched or low-pitched wheezing.
• might be described as gentle (soft, high-pitched) or rough (louder, low). The sound of hair rubbing between fingers is commonly used for example to explain this sort of sound. Crackles suggest the presence of intra-alveolar fluid, as seen in congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and interstitial lung disease.
• is a high-pitched, musical sound of respiratory produced by turbulent air flow within the larynx or lower within the bronchial tree. It is commonly intense and might be heard and not using a stethoscope. Stridor often requires immediate intervention.
  • Inspiratory stridor suggests obstruction above the vocal cords (i.e., angioedema, epiglottitis, foreign body).
  • Expiratory stridor or mixed inspiratory-expiratory stridor suggests obstruction below the vocal cords (i.e., croup, bacterial tracheitis, mass, foreign body).
• it could possibly be attributable to anything that forestalls air from entering the lungs. Such conditions include atelectasis, severe COPD, severe asthma, pneumothorax, tension pneumothorax, and external compression of the bronchi by a tumor.

Bickley, L. S., Szilagyi, P. G., Hoffman, R. M., & Soriano, R. P. (2021). Bate’s Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking (13^vol ed.). Wolters Kluwer Health: Philadelphia.

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