[Pulmonary auscultation in the era of evidence-based medicine]

Distinction between normal and abnormal respiratory sounds is important for accurate diagnosis.

This paper describes the state of the art, scientific publications and ongoing research related to the respiratory sounds. The study includes a description of the various techniques that are being used to record auscultatory sounds and a physical description of known pathological sounds (wheezes and crackles) for which automatic detection tools have been developed.

The next stage will include exploiting all the qualities of the sounds. This augmentation of the spectrum studied, linked to signal analysis techniques, will allow the definition of new characteristic markers.