Characteristics of Pulmonary Auscultation in Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus in China

© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel..

BACKGROUND: Effective auscultations are often hard to implement in isolation wards. To date, little is known about the characteristics of pulmonary auscultation in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the features and clinical significance of pulmonary auscultation in COVID-19 pneumonia using an electronic stethoscope in isolation wards.

METHODS: This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted among patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 at Wuhan Red-Cross Hospital during the period from January 27, 2020, to February 12, 2020. Standard auscultation with an electronic stethoscope was performed and electronic recordings of breath sounds were analyzed.

RESULTS: Fifty-seven patients with average age of 60.6 years were enrolled. The most common symptoms were cough (73.7%) during auscultation. Most cases had bilateral lesions (96.4%) such as multiple ground-glass opacities (69.1%) and fibrous stripes (21.8%). High-quality auscultation recordings (98.8%) were obtained, and coarse breath sounds, wheezes, coarse crackles, fine crackles, and Velcro crackles were identified. Most cases had normal breath sounds in upper lungs, but the proportions of abnormal breath sounds increased in the basal fields where Velcro crackles were more commonly identified at the posterior chest. The presence of fine and coarse crackles detected 33/39 patients with ground-glass opacities (sensitivity 84.6% and specificity 12.5%) and 8/9 patients with consolidation (sensitivity 88.9% and specificity 15.2%), while the presence of Velcro crackles identified 16/39 patients with ground-glass opacities (sensitivity 41% and specificity 81.3%).

CONCLUSIONS: The abnormal breath sounds in COVID-19 pneumonia had some consistent distributive characteristics and to some extent correlated with the radiologic features. Such evidence suggests that electronic auscultation is useful to aid diagnosis and timely management of the disease. Further studies are indicated to validate the accuracy and potential clinical benefit of auscultation in detecting pulmonary abnormalities in COVID-19 infection.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:99

Enthalten in:

Respiration; international review of thoracic diseases - 99(2020), 9 vom: 19., Seite 755-763

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Wang, Bo [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Yanbin [VerfasserIn]
Wang, Ye [VerfasserIn]
Yin, Wanhong [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Tao [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Dan [VerfasserIn]
Li, Diandian [VerfasserIn]
Feng, Mei [VerfasserIn]
Zhang, Yanlin [VerfasserIn]
Liang, Zong'an [VerfasserIn]
Fu, Ziqiao [VerfasserIn]
Fu, Siyun [VerfasserIn]
Li, Weimin [VerfasserIn]
Xiong, Nian [VerfasserIn]
Wang, Gang [VerfasserIn]
Luo, Fengming [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Antiviral Agents
Auscultation
Breath sounds
Electronic stethoscope
Glucocorticoids
Journal Article
Novel coronavirus pneumonia
Observational Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 01.01.2021

Date Revised 07.12.2022

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1159/000509610

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM317157973