Whois & Analysis for practicalclinicalskills.com

For the ancient monasterial worker, see Auscultare.

Auscultation (based on the Latin verb auscultare "to listen") is listening to the internal sounds of the body, usually using a stethoscope.

Auscultation is performed for the purposes of examining the circulatory and respiratory systems (heart and breath sounds), as well as the gastrointestinal system (bowel sounds).

Heart sounds are the noises generated by the beating heart and the resultant flow of blood through it.

Specifically, the sounds reflect the turbulence created when the heart valves snap shut.

In cardiac auscultation, an examiner may use a stethoscope to listen for these unique and distinct sounds that provide important auditory data regarding the condition of the heart.

Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) is the process of recording the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time using electrodes placed on the skin.

These electrodes detect the tiny electrical changes on the skin that arise from the heart muscle's electrophysiologic pattern of depolarizing and repolarizing during each heartbeat.

It is a very commonly performed cardiology test.

Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels.

When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the pressure in large arteries of the systemic circulation.

Blood pressure is usually expressed in terms of the systolic pressure (maximum during one heart beat) over diastolic pressure (minimum in between two heart beats) and is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg), above the surrounding atmospheric pressure (considered to be zero for convenience).

Respiratory sounds, breath sounds, or lung sounds refer to the specific sounds generated by the movement of air through the respiratory system.

These may be easily audible or identified through auscultation of the respiratory system through the lung fields with a stethoscope as well as from the spectral chacteristics of lung sounds.

These include normal breath sounds and adventitious or "added" sounds such as rales, wheezes, pleural friction rubs, stertor and stridor.