Introduction

LEARNING LUNG SOUNDS - Introduction

Lung sounds provide important information in the diagnosis and monitoring of the clinical course of patients with lung disorders. The purpose of this presentation is to review the most important lung sounds, their mechanism of production, the locations where they are commonly heard and their clinical associations.

Developments in technology have led to a clearer understanding of the acoustic basis of lung sounds. To facilitate the learning process the acoustic characteristics of the common lung sounds will be presented and illustrated. There are also characteristic patterns of distribution of the sounds over the chest that are useful in differential diagnosis. These patterns will be presented using displays made from actual patients utilizing computerized lung sound analysis.

The learning objectives are:

To increase the user's awareness of normal and abnormal lung sounds.
To increase the user's ability to differentiate various lung sound patterns.
To familiarize the user with typical case examples.
To acquaint the user with a new level of technology in the analysis of lung sounds.

Audience:

Intended for everyone interested in clinical medicine, particularly students and residents in medicine, nursing and respiratory care as well as those in physician assistant and emergency care programs.