What are the Causes of Unusual Breathing Sounds?

Lung sounds are the noises a person makes as they breathe in and out, including sounds of regular breathing. However, unusual breathing sounds such as wheezing, crackling, stridor, and other sounds can also occur, indicating an underlying condition.

Sometimes health conditions or foreign objects in the lungs can cause changes in your breath sounds, such as wheezing or crackles.

An individual’s respiratory system comprises many parts, including:
  • Airways, such as the trachea and bronchial tubes
  • Blood vessels and muscles
  • The diaphragm
  • Persons Lungs
  • The ribs
When a person breathes, these parts work together to provide the body with oxygen. During breathing, an individual’s lungs can make a variety of sounds.
While certain lung sounds are typical and indicate that the lungs are working correctly, other sounds can indicate an underlying health condition.

What are Unusual Breathing Sounds?

Breathing sounds come from the lungs when you breathe in and out. A person can hear these sounds using a stethoscope or simply when breathing.
Sometimes, irregular breath sounds might indicate a health issue involving your lungs, such as:
Listening to breath sounds is an important part of diagnosing many different medical conditions.

What are Regular Lung Sounds?

When a doctor listens to someone’s lungs using a stethoscope, they note the frequency, intensity, and quality of the sounds they hear. These factors can help them determine whether the sounds from the lungs are regular or not.
Breath sounds can differ depending on where they occur in the respiratory system. Healthcare professionals classify them in the following ways:
  • Vesicular breath sound: Vesicular breathing sounds predominantly occur when someone breathes in. The sound is soft, low-pitched, and rustling in quality.
  • Bronchial breath sound: The bronchial breathing sound is audible over the trachea as a person breathes out. The sound is loud, hollow, and high-pitched. However, if a doctor hears a bronchial breath outside the trachea, it could indicate a health issue.
  • Bronchovesicular sounds: Bronchovesicular breath sounds occur when something breaths in and out. They are mid-range in intensity and pitch and occur in the upper third of the chest.

What are Unusual Breathing Sounds?

A typical breath sound is similar to the sound of air. However, irregular breath sounds may include:
  • Crackles, high pitched breath sounds that are similar to popping or snapping
  • Rhonchi, low pitched breathing sounds that are similar to snoring
  • Stridor, a harsh, vibratory sound that occurs due to the narrowing of the upper airway, heard most prominently when inhaling
  • Wheezing, a high pitched whistling sound that occurs due to the narrowing of the bronchial tubes
A doctor can use a medical instrument called a stethoscope to hear breath sounds. They can hear the breath sounds by placing the stethoscope on your chest, back, or rib cage, or under your collarbone.

Wheezing

Wheezing is a high-pitched, musical, continuous sound. A doctor may be able to hear a person wheezing with or without a stethoscope.
Health experts classify wheezes into two groups:
  • Monophonic wheezes: This type of wheeze produces one note and occurs during inhalation or exhalation. A monophonic wheeze can have a constant or varied frequency, and it may have a long duration or occur during both phases of respiration.
  • Polyphonic wheezes: A polyphonic wheeze has multiple notes and occurs during exhalation. They can also increase in pitch toward the end of exhalation.

Causes of Unusual Breathing Sounds

Irregular and unusual breathing sounds are indicators of health issues in the lungs or airways. The most common causes of these breath sounds are:

Finding out Causes of Unusual Breathing Sounds

A doctor will review your medical history to determine the cause of your atypical breath sounds. Your medical history includes any current or past medical conditions and any medications you take.
Tell a doctor when you noticed the atypical breath sounds and what you were doing before you heard them. Be sure to mention any other symptoms you may be experiencing.
The doctor will order one or several tests to determine the cause of the atypical sounds. These tests can include:

Pulmonary Function Test (PFT)

A doctor can use a pulmonary function test to measure how much air you inhale and exhale and how efficiently you inhale and exhale.
A sputum cultureis a test for detecting foreign organisms in the lungs’ mucus, such as atypical bacteria or fungi. For this test, a doctor may ask you to cough and collect the sputum you cough up. The doctor will then send this sample to a lab for analysis.

Diagnosis of Unusual Breathing Sounds

When a doctor wants to listen to a person’s lungs, they will generally use a stethoscope, which they place on various parts of a person’s chest and back to check for different lung sounds.
They may tap an individual’s back to listen for nodules or fluid buildup. This technique involves placing the stethoscope below a person’s rib cage and tapping down their back to listen for changes in pitch when tapping.
They may also use other listening tools, such as computerized lung sound analysis devices, for diagnosis. Doctors can also request blood test, computerized tomography (CT) scan, or X-rays during diagnosis.

Treatment of Unusual Breathing Sounds

The treatment for atypical lung sounds will depend on the cause and severity of their symptoms.
An individual with irregular lung sounds may require antibiotics if there is an infection. Doctors may also recommend anti-inflammatories to treat conditions involving inflammation.
A person with a long-term lung condition may require regular medications or treatments.
If there are more serious symptoms, treatment in the hospital and possibly surgery may be necessary.

When to Seek Medical Help

Healthcare professionals typically hear unusual or atypical lung sounds using instruments like a stethoscope. People may not be able to hear these sounds with the naked ear.
However, the various causes of lung sounds may also lead to other symptoms. Anyone who notices new symptoms related to their breathing should speak with a doctor for a diagnosis. These symptoms could include:
If someone has difficulty breathing, they should seek immediate medical help.

When a Breathing Sounds Becomes Medical Emergency

Go to the emergency room or call local emergency services if breathing difficulty comes on suddenly, is severe, or if someone stops breathing.
Cyanosis, a bluish color of skin and mucous membranes due to lack of oxygen, can occur along with atypical breath sounds. Cyanosis involving the lips or the face is also a medical emergency.
A doctor will also look for the following signs of an emergency:
  • Abdominal breathing, which is the use of the abdominal muscles to assist breathing
  • Accessory muscle use, which is the use of the neck and chest wall muscles to assist breathing
  • Nasal flaring, which is an enlargement of the opening of the nostrils when breathing that doctors see in babies and young children
  • Stridor, which indicates an upper airway obstruction

Summary

Certain unusual lung sounds may indicate a person has an underlying health condition, such as pneumonia, COPD, or a respiratory infection.
If an individual notices any unusual lung sounds or symptoms, they should speak with a doctor. Their doctor can listen to the sounds with a stethoscope and carry out a complete diagnosis.
Seek urgent medical attention if a person has difficulty breathing or stops breathing.  
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