Bronchovesicular breathing
In one sentenceBetween vesicular and bronchial. Inspiration and expiration are similar in length and intensity.
Listen to the same sound in another patient. Breathing rate, chest wall, the pitch of the sound and the number of adventitious sounds vary within realistic limits.
What does it sound like?
Higher-frequency components are more prominent than in the vesicular sound. Expiration is heard for nearly as long as inspiration.
Where is it heard?
Normally over areas close to the large airways: the upper parasternal area at the front and between the scapulae at the back.
What causes it?
Near the large airways, little aerated lung lies in between. The sound is filtered less. Its high-pitched parts are a little more audible, and expiration also becomes distinct.
Quantitative criteria
- These terms describe an acoustic character and its usual recording site. They do not imply a separate anatomical sound generator.
Clinical meaning
Heard in its normal place, it is not a finding. Heard over a peripheral area, it suggests that transmission has changed (early consolidation, compressive atelectasis).
Sounds it can be confused with
In the bronchial sound, expiration is louder and longer, and there is a short silence between the phases.
In the vesicular sound, expiration stays short and faint.
Listen first between the scapulae and then over the lung base. This teaches your ear the difference.
See the reference list for sources.