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Crackles and Other Lung Sounds

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Breath Sounds

Abstract

Crackles are intermittent, nonmusical, and brief adventitious lung sounds that can be heard on inspiration and sometimes during expiration. They are classified as fine or coarse depending on their frequency and duration; fine crackles have high frequency and short duration, whereas coarse crackles have lower frequency and longer duration. They are generated when air is forced through abnormally narrowed respiratory passages. The study of lung sounds, in general, and crackles, in particular, has advanced rapidly in the last two decades, thanks to the contribution of evolving technology. Based on various methods of artificial intelligence, researchers have managed to effectively detect and analyze lung sound signals and characterize them objectively. Unfortunately, the diagnostic utility of these high-end methods in clinical settings is still limited. In this review we attempt to summarize what is known about crackles and, in addition, discuss in less detail some of the other less common adventitious lung sounds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Unit, Third Department of Pediatrics, “Attikon” Hospital, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece

    Konstantinos Douros & Vasilis Grammeniatis

  2. Cystic Fibrosis Unit, “Aghia Sophia” Children’s Hospital, Athens, Greece

    Ioanna Loukou

Authors
  1. Konstantinos Douros
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  2. Vasilis Grammeniatis
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  3. Ioanna Loukou
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Children’s Respiratory and Allergy Unit, Third Department of Paediatrics “Attikon” Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Kostas N. Priftis

  2. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Leontios J. Hadjileontiadis

  3. Division of Child Health, University of Western Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, Australia

    Mark L. Everard

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Douros, K., Grammeniatis, V., Loukou, I. (2018). Crackles and Other Lung Sounds. In: Priftis, K., Hadjileontiadis, L., Everard, M. (eds) Breath Sounds. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71824-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71824-8_12

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