The respiratory sound features of COVID-19 patients fill gaps between clinical data and screening methods

Ying hui Huang; Si jun Meng; Yi Zhang; Shui sheng Wu; Yu Zhang; Ya wei Zhang; Yi xiang Ye; Qi feng Wei; Nian gui Zhao; Jian ping Jiang; Xiao ying Ji; Chun xia Zhou; Chao Zheng; Wen Zhang; Li zhong Xie; Yong chao Hu; Jian quan He; Jian Chen; Wang yue Wang; Chang hua Zhang; Liming Cao; Wen Xu; Yunhong Lei; Zheng hua Jian; Wei ping Hu; Wen juan Qin; Wan yu Wang; Yu long He; Hang Xiao; Xiao fang Zheng; Yi Qun Hu; Wen Sheng Pan; Jian feng Cai

Common abnormal breath sounds include bronchial breathing (common in pneumonia or fibrosis), stridor (indicating upper-airway obstruction), wheeze (typical signs of asthma), rhonchus (common with airway narrowing caused by bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cackles (including fine cackles and coarse, can be earliest sign of disease, eg. interstitial lung fibrosis, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, asbestosis, etc.), pleural friction rub (associated with pleural related disease), squawk (associated with conditions affecting distal airways) 6 . After the preliminary judgment of breath sounds collected from ten patients, two patients with poor recording quality were excluded according to exclusion criterion. None of the patients had a history of chronic respiratory disease, which may interference with auscultation results. Among the results of breath sounds auscultation from six doctors, the types of abnormal breath sounds described by each doctor had some differences. These were related to factors such as the auscultation habits of each doctor.