Rhonchi are musical low-pitched sounds similar to snores, usually indicating secretions in the airway, and are often cleared by coughing 1.Īlthough auscultation has many advantages, the ability to analyze respiratory sounds among clinicians varies greatly depending on individual clinical experiences 6, 10. Wheezes are musical high-pitched sounds associated with airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Crackles, which are short, explosive, and non-musical, are produced by patients with parenchymal lung diseases such as pneumonia, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and pulmonary edema 1, 8, 9. Crackles, wheezes and rhonchi are the most commonly found among them, and detecting those sounds greatly aids the diagnosis of pulmonary diseases 6, 7. Abnormal lung sounds include crackles, wheezes, rhonchi, stridor, and pleural friction rubs (Table 1). Recent electronic stethoscopes have rendered lung sounds recordable, and it facilitated the studies of automatically analyzing lung sounds 4, 5. Auscultation is non-invasive, real-time, inexpensive, and very informative 1, 2, 3. The stethoscope has been considered as an invaluable diagnostic tool ever since it was invented in the early 1800s. Our deep learning-based classification would be able to complement the inaccuracies of clinicians' auscultation, and it may aid in the rapid diagnosis and appropriate treatment of respiratory diseases. On the other hand, as a result of respiratory sound classification by different groups showed varying degree in terms of accuracy the overall accuracies were 60.3% for medical students, 53.4% for interns, 68.8% for residents, and 80.1% for fellows. It further classified abnormal lung sounds into crackles, wheezes, or rhonchi with an overall accuracy of 85.7% and a mean AUC of 0.92. It detected abnormal sounds with an accuracy of 86.5% and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.93. We developed the predictive model for respiratory sound classification combining pretrained image feature extractor of series, respiratory sound, and CNN classifier. We utilized deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) to categorize 1918 respiratory sounds (normal, crackles, wheezes, rhonchi) recorded in the clinical setting. To overcome such limitations, we tried to develop an automated classification of breath sounds. However, accurate interpretation of respiratory sounds requires clinician’s considerable expertise, so trainees such as interns and residents sometimes misidentify respiratory sounds. Detection of abnormal respiratory sounds with a stethoscope is important in diagnosing respiratory diseases and providing first aid. doi:10.2471/BLT.20.Auscultation has been essential part of the physical examination this is non-invasive, real-time, and very informative.

Smoking and epidemics of respiratory infections. Sitas F, Harris-Roxas B, Bradshaw D, Lopez AD. National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: diagnosis and management. Inspiratory crackles-early and late-revisited: identifying COPD by crackle characteristics. Melbye H, Solis JCA, Jacome C, Pasterkamp H. Respiratory sound classification for crackles, wheezes, and rhonchi in the clinical field using deep learning. Sarkar M, Madabhavi I, Niranjan N, Dogra M. Wheezes, crackles, and rhonchi: simplifying description of lung sounds increases the agreement on their classification: a study of 12 physicians' classification of lung sounds from video recordings. Autoimmune diseases: Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis can both attack the lungs, causing the progressive scarring of lung tissues.Atelectasis: This is a condition that causes alveoli to collapse in certain areas of the lungs.Sarcoidosis: This is a rare condition that causes small patches of granular tissue, called granulomas, to form in the organs of the body, including the lungs.Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF): This is a condition in which lung tissues become thick and stiff for unknown reasons.Pneumonia: The infection can also cause parenchymal inflammation (sometimes referred to as 'interstitial pneumonia').

Asbestosis: This is a condition that causes scarring of the lungs due to prolonged exposure to asbestos fibers in the air.Pulmonary edema: This is the swelling of the lungs due to the overload of fluid in tissues (sometimes referred to as 'wet lung').Interstitial lung disease (ILD): This is an umbrella term used for a large group of diseases that cause scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs.

Pulmonary edema lung sounds