Health care measures that can be employed at home depend on the disease causing any abnormal breath sounds. Consult with your health care provider.

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath -- a potential emergency condition!
• Use of accessory muscles or other signs of increased breathing work such as retractions, nasal flaring, and cyanosis -- this is an emergency symptom!
• Wheezing or other abnormal sounds, persistent or noticed for the first time

• Time pattern
  • When did it start?
  • How long did it last?
  • Is there a pattern to the occurrences?
• Quality
  • How would you describe it?
• Relieving factors
  • What makes it better?
• Aggravating factors
  • What makes it worse?
• Other
  • What other symptoms are also present?
  • Is there any coughing?
  • Is there any difficulty breathing?

• Chest x-ray
• Pulmonary function tests
• Blood tests (including an arterial blood gas)
• CAT scan of the chest
• Analysis of a sputum sample (sputum culture, sputum gram stain)

Interventions:
Treatment will depend on the disease that is causing the abnormal breath sounds.

After seeing your health care provider:
You may want to add a diagnosis related to abnormal breath sounds to your personal medical record.