Crackle analysis for chest auscultation and comparison with high-resolution CT findings.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of our study was to clarify the correlation between respiratory sounds and the high-resolution CT (HRCT) findings of lung diseases.


METHODS
Respiratory sounds were recorded using a stethoscope in 41 patients with crackles. All had undergone inspiratory and expiratory CT. Subjects included 18 patients with interstitial pneumonia and 23 without interstitial pneumonia. Two parameters, two-cycle duration (2CD) and initial deflection width (IDW) of the "crackle," were induced by time-expanded waveform analysis. Two radiologists independently assessed 11 HRCT findings. An evaluation was carried out to determine whether there was a significant difference in the two parameters between the presence and absence of each HRCT finding.


RESULTS
The two parameters of crackles were significantly shorter in the interstitial pneumonia group than the non-interstitial pneumonia group. Ground-glass opacity, honeycombing, lung volume reduction, traction bronchiectasis, centrilobular nodules, emphysematous change, and attenuation and volume change between inspiratory and expiratory CT were correlated with one or two parameters in all patients, whereas the other three findings were not. Among the interstitial pneumonia group, traction bronchiectasis, emphysematous change, and attenuation and volume change between inspiratory and expiratory CT were significantly correlated with one or two parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
Abnormal respiratory sounds were correlated with some HRCT findings.
Kawamura
Takeo
T
Department of Radiology, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Ube, Japan.
Matsumoto
Tsuneo
T
Tanaka
Nobuyuki
N
Kido
Shoji
S
Jiang
Zhongwei
Z
Matsunaga
Naofumi
N
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001314:Auscultation; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010808:Physical Examination; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*