Bronchial Breathing

MANUAL OF CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS

Bronchial breathing is characterised by loud, high-pitched breath sounds heard in areas of the lung where they are not normally auscultated. These sounds resemble the normal breath sounds heard over the trachea and main bronchi, but when heard in the peripheral lung areas, they may indicate an underlying pathology. This finding suggests that the lung parenchyma has lost its normal ability to muffle breath sounds due to consolidation or fibrosis.

Pathology	Clinical Symptoms and Signs	Suspected Diagnosis	Confirmatory Diagnosis
Consolidation Secondary to Infection	Fever, productive cough, dyspnoea, crackles, bronchial breathing	Medical history of respiratory infection, physical examination	Chest X-ray, chest computed tomography (CT), sputum culture
Pleural Cavity	Chest pain, dyspnoea, decreased breath sounds, dull percussion	Medical history, physical examination	Chest X-ray, chest CT, thoracic ultrasound
Pulmonary Fibrosis	Progressive dyspnoea, dry cough, basal crackles, bronchial breathing	Medical history, physical examination, crackles	Chest X-ray, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), lung biopsy
Interstitial Lung Disease	Progressive dyspnoea, dry cough, crackles, bronchial breathing	Medical history, physical examination, crackles	Chest X-ray, HRCT, lung biopsy