Lung auscultation: Pathogenic mechanisms underlying the respiratory sounds

Auscultation of the lungs is one of the oldest diagnostic methods invented by Rene Laenneck. Nowadays, auscultation hasn’t lost its clinical significance. However, the development of science and technical progress have brought a lot of new ideas about the pathogenesis and interpretation of lungs sounds. This, in turn, caused some changes in the nomenclature. Moreover, the nomenclature of lung sounds in several European countries does not differ significantly but does not fully correspond to the recommended terminology for the English language. In addition, the mechanisms underlying some respiratory murmurs are interpreted ambiguously at present. For example, the main respiratory sound is designated both as “vesicular” and as “normal” respiration because of persisting differences in explaining the pathogenesis of this murmur. There is also a considerable difference in the terminology of added sounds such as crackles, wheezing, rhonchi, as well as the difference in understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

Aim. This review analyses the existing differences in the interpretation of lung auscultation and the terminology used to describe respiratory sounds in the Russian and foreign medical literature.

Conclusion. Comparative analysis of Russian and foreign publications concerning the issues of lung auscultation demonstrates the existing differences in the terminology and understanding of the mechanisms that underly the main and adventitious respiratory sounds. Forming the common information space requires the unification of terminology and interpretation of physiological and pathological processes in the lungs responsible for the respiratory sounds. Recording the lung sounds with subsequent computer analysis will make it possible to objectify the auscultation data and classify the sounds more accurately.

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