Survey of respiratory sounds in infants

Background-Over the last decade there has been an apparent increase in chil dhood wheeze. We speculated that much of the reported increase may be attri buted to the term wheeze being adopted by parents to describe a variety of other forms of noisy breathing. Aims-To investigate terminology used by parents to describe their children' s breath sounds. Methods-An interview was carried out with the parents of 92 infants with no isy breathing, beginning with an open question and then directed towards a more detailed description. Finally, the parents were asked to choose from a wheeze, ruttle, and strider on imitation by the investigator and video cli ps of children. Results-Wheeze was the most commonly chosen word on initial questioning (59 %). Only 36% were still using this term at the end of the interview, repres enting a decrease of one third, whereas the use of the word ruttles doubled . Conclusions-Our results reflect the degree of inaccuracy involved in the us e of the term wheeze in clinical practice, which may be leading to over dia gnosis. Imprecise use of this term has potentially important implications f or therapy and clinical trials.