rhonchi

Rhonchi are low-pitched, rattling or snoring-like sounds heard through the stethoscope, produced when air moves past secretions or through narrowed larger airways. If a wheeze is a high whistle, a rhonchus is a deep gurgling rumble, a bit like air bubbling through a partly blocked pipe.

They are continuous sounds, meaning they last a meaningful fraction of the breath rather than being brief pops, and they often span both breathing in and out. A characteristic feature is that rhonchi frequently change or clear after the patient coughs, because coughing shifts the mucus that was causing them.

Rhonchi typically reflect secretions in the bigger bronchi and are common in bronchitis, COPD, pneumonia and bronchiectasis. The distinction from crackles matters: crackles are discontinuous, fine, popping sounds from the small air spaces, whereas rhonchi are continuous, coarse and arise from the larger airways. In everyday practice the terms are sometimes used loosely, so clinicians increasingly describe exactly what they hear — pitch, timing, and whether coughing changes it.