Wheeze detection in the pediatric intensive care unit.

If one excludes cough from the acoustic signs related to respiratory disease, wheezing becomes the most common adventitious lung sound. The whistling tones of wheezing are understood to originate from airway wall flutter when flow becomes limited during airway obstruction.1 It is well recognized that “not all that wheezes is asthma,” but wheezing is most typically heard in patients with asthma. Questionnaires in epidemiologic surveys of asthma prevalence and severity (eg, the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood)2 depend on inquiries about recent and past wheezing episodes. Young children with acute obstructive airway diseases are often characterized as “wheezy infants.” Phenotypes of wheezing in early life have been described,3 but the diagnosis of asthma based on recurrent wheezing remains difficult in the individual young child.