The lungs produce three categories of sounds that clinicians appreciate during auscultation : breath sounds, adventitious sounds, and vocal resonance.įor the purpose of this article, we refer to breath sounds as the normal lung sounds heard through the chest wall with the use of a stethoscope, rather than audible breathing through the mouth. In this article, we will focus on auscultation of lung sounds, which are useful in predicting chest pathology when considered alongside the clinical context. The pulmonary exam includes multiple components, including inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation.
