Often it can be heard at the end of inhalation and the beginning of exhalation. EMTs and paramedics can hear the sound of a pleural friction rub both on inspiration and expiration. You can hear both Fine Crackles and Wheezes in this video.)Ĭonditions likely to produce fine crackles in lungs.Ī pleural friction rub occurs when the inflamed pleural surfaces rub against each other during respiration. (This is a 21 year-old adult male patient with Cystic Fibrosis. Course crackles in the lungs can also be described as rattling, gurgling or cracking sounds heard with breathing. They can be heard anywhere in the anterior or posterior lung fields and it’s also possible for coarse crackles to be heard on one side of the chest, in both lungs, or in different spots throughout the lungs. Course crackle lung sounds tend to be a loud, low pitched bubbling sound. Other reasons that crackles breath sounds can trip up first responders are: they can sound similar to rhonchi, they were previously called rales breath sounds, and people often describe crackles using terms like dry, moist and wet.Ĭoarse crackles are a crackling sound when breathing that is usually caused by mucous in the airways. Crackles can occur on inspiration or expiration and each type can indicate a different disease process. Crackles lung sounds can be categorized both by the sound quality and when they are heard in the respiratory cycle. Stridor breathing may indicate a medical emergency in patients who are not getting enough oxygen.Ĭonditions likely to produce stridor breathing.Ĭrackles lung sounds can be trickier for EMTs and paramedics than other adventitious lung sounds for a variety of reasons.

If the breath sound increases at the throat, the patient has stridor breathing and not an inspiratory wheeze. EMTs can use their stethoscope and gently listen over the patient’s throat (trachea) for the stridor sound to get louder. The stridor sound can be mistaken for wheezing, but there is a simple way to check whether the patient is experiencing an inspiratory wheeze or stridor. Often it will be possible for first responders to hear stridor breathing without a stethoscope. It is a high pitched musical sound heard on inspiration that’s caused by air moving through a partially obstructed airway. Stridor breathing is continuous and tends to be one of the easie r adventitious lung sounds for EMTs to recognize. Stridor lung sounds are frequently heard in children and are caused by something blocking the larynx. You can check out the website and hear more breath sounds and heart sounds at. They were taken using the Thinklabs Digital Stethoscope. Most of the breath sounds videos in this article are meant to be listened to with headphones.

Absent and diminished breath sounds are also abnormal, but they are not considered to be adventitious lung sounds. Wheezing, rhonchi, stridor, crackles and pleural friction rub are all adventitious lung sounds because you will hear extra noises in the airways during the assessment. Abnormal lung sounds that have additional noise when listening are called adventitious lung sounds. There are steps you can take to make sure you get the best reading every time you place your stethoscope and listen to a patient’s lung field.Īn important step is to place your stethoscope’s diaphragm on the correct areas of your patient’s chest and back, so you can clearly hear air moving through the passageways.īreath sounds can be categorized as normal and abnormal. Lastly, you can find tips first responders can use to become better at auscultation in the field.ĮMTs and paramedics in the field may find it especially difficult to assess a patient’s breath sounds because of the noisy environment and constant movement.

This article will also cover the different types of breath sounds and provide sample audio clips of adventitious lung sounds. You will learn about the anatomy of the lung along with landmarks for lung auscultation. Lung auscultation is an important medical skill that EMTs and paramedics should be familiar with. This guide to auscultating lung sounds will cover everything emergency medical technicians (EMT) need to know about assessing a patient’s breath sounds.

Adventitious breath sounds of pneumonia