Wheezing can accompany many respiratory diseases. Wheezing during breathing is considered additional breathing noise and may be dry or wet.
Dry wheezing during breathing can occur with a decrease in bronchial gaps or with a narrowing of the trachea due to scattered swelling and blood supply to the mucosa during the development of the inflammatory process. In addition, this phenomenon can be observed with spasm of smooth bronchial muscles. Such wheezing during breathing is observed with exacerbation of bronchial asthma, with asthmatic bronchitis, with a pathological change in the structure of the bronchi due to the formation of fibrous tissue in the bronchial walls. In addition, wheezing during breathing can be present when thick sputum forms in the bronchial tissues, which during the passage through it of the air flow tends to stretch.
Dry wheezing during breathing, as a rule, can be heard both during inhalation and exhalation. At any one phase of breathing, wheezing is rarely heard.
According to the volume level and sound characteristics, dry wheezing during breathing can have differences, the presence of which is determined by the degree of narrowing of the bronchial tissues and the fact which particular bronchus was damaged.
The volume of wheezing during breathing depends on how deeply the pathological process is located and, in general, on the strength of the respiratory movements of a particular person.
Dry wheezing during breathing can be divided into high whistling sounds and low humming sounds. The first group of wheezing, as a rule, takes place with the development of narrowing of the bronchial lumen in the small bronchi and usually occurs in the inflammatory process. The second group of wheezing wheezing occurs in larger bronchi.
Dry wheezing during breathing, in contrast to wet, has a longer duration.
Wet wheezing during breathing develops when air flows through semi-liquid or liquid secretions, which accumulate in the bronchial lumen or in the pulmonary cavity, which directly communicates with the tissues of the bronchi. Air bubbles formed during this process burst, making a specific sound – this is wet wheezing during breathing. The peculiarity of this type of wheezing is that they can be heard only in two phases of breathing.
Among moist rales during breathing, small-bubbling, medium-bubbling and large-bubbling rales are distinguished. The first group of wet rales during breathing is formed in the small bronchi, the second, respectively, in the middle, the third in the large bronchi and lung cavities.
If bronchiectasis is present, moist rales during breathing can only be heard in a specific area. With the development of blood stasis in the bronchi, moist rales are heard from two sides.
Provided the lung tissue is densified in the area where the formation of wet rales occurs, wheezing can be heard with maximum clarity. Such rales are called voiced or consonant. They must be delimited from the deaf, then eating non-consonant wheezing when breathing. The formation of the latter occurs in the bronchial tissue, which is surrounded by lung tissue, which has the ability to poorly conduct any sounds.
In the area above the pulmonary cavities, it is usually possible to listen to sonorous moist rales of medium or coarse bubble origin, since the pulmonary cavity is often surrounded by dense tissue. In addition, large cavities can act as resonators, further enhancing the intensity of wheezing. With the development of bronchitis, wheezing is usually deaf.