Welcome to our vesicular breath sounds page. On this page we provide a definition of vesicular breath sounds, and then we compare vesicular breath sounds to bronchial sounds using audio recordings and text. Finally, there is a link to the training lessons available on this site.
Vesicular lung sounds are heard across the lung surface. They are lower-pitched, rustling sounds with higher intensity during inspiration. During expiration, sound intensity can quickly fade. Inspiration is normally 2-3 times the length of expiration.
Bronchial breath sounds are heard when auscultating over the large airways.
While we have many breath sound lessons and quick references on this website. Please use the links below.
Basics of Lung Sounds
The goal of this basic course in lung sounds is to improve auscultation observational skills. We focus on describing important breath sounds and in providing recordings of each. Many students find that waveform tracings aid in learning lung sounds; we have included dynamic (moving cursor) waveforms with each lesson. The anatomy pages use illustrations to reveal an example of each lung sound (anatomy not yet available on smartphones). |
1 | Vesicular - Normal |
2 | Crackles - Fine (Rales) |
3 | Crackles - Coarse (Rales) |
4 | Wheeze |
5 | Rhonchi - Low Pitched Wheezes |
6 | Bronchial |
7 | Pleural Rubs |
8 | Bronchovesicular |
Intermediate Lung Sounds
The goal of this intermediate course is to expand your observational skills when auscultating breath sounds. The course lessons include voiced sounds: bronchophony, egophony and whispered pectoriloquy. We also provide auscultation lessons on several types of wheezes, crackles and stridor. Each of these lung sound lessons includes audio, text and dynamic waveform. The anatomy pages use illustrations to reveal an example of each lung sound (anatomy not yet available on smartphones). |
1 | Vesicular - Diminished |
2 | Bronchophony - Healthy |
3 | Bronchophony - Abnormal |
4 | Egophony - e |
5 | Egophony - a |
6 | Whispered Pectoriloquy - Healthy |
7 | Whispered Pectoriloquy - Abnormal |
8 | Wheeze - Expiratory |
9 | Wheeze - Monophonic |
10 | Wheeze - Polyphonic |
11 | Crackles - Early Inspiratory (Rales) |
12 | Crackles - Late Inspiratory (Rales) |
13 | Stridor |