Respiratory Sounds AtlasListen · Recognise · Interpret
English edition · referenced · from medical student to specialist

Respiratory Sounds Atlas

Learn respiratory sounds by listening to them, seeing them on a spectrogram and applying them in cases.

Start in 5 minutesSound atlas
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Fine cracklesFibrotic ILD, congestion
0:00.0 / 0:00.1
2000150010005000 Hz
0.1 s · 16 kHz · spectrogram: Hann 32 ms, 0–2000 HzSynthetic simulation · headphones recommended

Where should you start?

I am a medical student

Start with the basics

  1. Respiratory sounds in 5 minutes
  2. Normal and adventitious sounds (Modules 1–3)
  3. 10 student-level cases
Start I am a resident

Move on to bedside interpretation

  1. Clinical interpretation module
  2. 12 resident-level cases
  3. Spectrogram recognition test
Start I am a specialist or I teach

Reference and teaching

  1. Disease guide and chain table
  2. Pocket card and case sets
  3. Digital auscultation module
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Modules

1Foundations

What is sound, where does it start and how does it reach the chest wall?

4 lessons2Normal breath sounds

What does a healthy lung sound like, and how much can normal vary?

2 lessons3Adventitious sounds

How do adventitious sounds arise, and how do you tell them apart by ear?

5 lessons4Examination

How do you listen properly, avoid pitfalls and record what you find?

4 lessons5Clinical interpretation

Which disease does the sound you hear suggest?

4 lessons6Special situations

What is different in the upper airway, in children, in intensive care and in cough?

4 lessons7Digital auscultation

What can a sound recording and a spectrogram show, and what can they not show?

3 lessons

Four questions at the bedside

Describe an abnormal sound before you name it. A single feature does not make a diagnosis. Taken together, the answers to the four questions narrow down both the cause of the sound and the likely diseases.

When?

Inspiration or expiration? Early or late?

What does it sound like?

Musical or explosive? Fine or coarse?

Where?

One area or widespread? One side or both?

What changes it?

Coughing, deep breathing, position or treatment.

The sounds on this site

Synthetic but tuned to reality

The sounds are generated in your browser. They are not patient recordings. The crackles match the CORSA criteria exactly. Wheezes, rhonchi and stridor were tuned to measurements of real, expert-annotated recordings from an open-licence database.

Use headphones

Most of the energy of respiratory sounds lies at low frequencies, and phone speakers reproduce this band poorly. You can turn the spectrogram on and off with the button on the player.

Important

The sounds are simulations for teaching, not diagnostic templates. The content does not replace clinical assessment.