by John Meyer

Created on: November 07, 2009

Recognizing Lung Sounds & Their Pre-Hospital Care

Top hints & tips!

Recognition of lung or breathing sounds has high clinical and diagnostic value in managing and treating various acute (severe, short term) and chronic I(long term) chest and heart diseases. Early recognition and prompt adoption of at-home or on-the-way preventive and corrective measures has always proved to be of utmost value for the patient's life.

Read on to have a brief but concise review of various lung sounds, their causes, distinguishing characteristics and the time-tested corrective and preventive first-aid features for the associated conditions.

What are lung sounds?

Definition: Lung or breathing sounds are the noises produced by the structures of the lungs during breathing.

TYPES OF LUNG SOUND

Lung sounds can be simply classified as normal or abnormal. However, as the focus of this article is abnormal lung sounds, the emphases shall be put on the same.

Types of normal breath sounds

1-Bronchial breathing
The bronchial breath sounds are heard over the trachea (wind pipe). They have a higher pitch and are louder. Inspiration (inhalation) and expiration (exhalation) are equal and there is a pause between inspiration and expiration.

2- The vesicular breathing
The vesicular breath sounds are heard over the thorax (chest). They have a lower pitch, are softer than bronchial breathing. Expiration is shorter and there is no pause between inspiration and expiration.

Types of adventitious (abnormal) lung sounds

There are several types of abnormal breath sounds. The 5 most common are:

1-Rales (crackles)
These are small clicking, bubbling, or rattling sounds in the lung. They tend to occur when air opens closed air spaces. These closed spaces are formed because of the presence of excessive fluid within the airways. This fluid could be due to an exudate, as in pneumonia or other infections of the lung, or a transudate, as in congestive heart failure. Rales can be further described as:

i) Fine (high pitched, soft, very brief) or

ii) Coarse (low pitched, louder, less brief)

Tip to indentify: Remember the sound of water being poured from a bottle.

2- Rhonchi
These sounds resemble snoring. They occur when air is blocked or becomes rough through the large airways.

3- Wheezes

These are high-pitched bubbling sounds produced by narrowed airways and are associated with forced airflow through abnormally collapsed airways with residual trapping of air. They can be heard when a person breathes

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