Table 2.

Reliability of Respiratory Physical Examination Signs Elicited by Auscultation

Sign	Inter-examiner reliabilitya	Reference
Bronchial breathing	0.19	31
	0.32	35
	-0.14 to 0.14c	60
Whispering pectoriloquy	0.11	33
Whispering pectoriloquy	0.16 to 0.25c	60
Bronchophony	-0.10 to 0.18c	60
Egophony	b	25
Breath sound intensity	"Differences among examiners–not statistically significant"	55
	"29% disagreement"	22,26
	Coefficient of correlation: 0.58	29
	Coefficient of correlation: 0.97	29
	0.16	31
	0.23 to 0.43c	32
	0.43	33
	0.38	59
	0.42	58
	0.89	61
	b	25,28
Rales/crackles/crepitations	0.36	31
	0.32	58
	0.30 to 0.63c	32
	0.41	33
	0.24 to 0.65c	60
	0.67	61
	b	25,28
Rhonchi	0.55	31
	-0.06 to 0.18c	60
	b	25
Vocal resonance (diminished)	0.78	61
	b	25
Vocal resonance (increased)	b	25
Wheezes	0.54 to 0.70c	32
	0.51	33
	0.50	59
	0.43	58
	0.85	34
	-0.05 to 0.65c	60
	b	28
Wheezing at maximal forced exhalation	"90% agreement"	57
Expiratory phase (prolonged)	0.53	31
	0.35	33
Pleural friction rub	-0.02	31
	0.51	33
	-0.02	61

^aUnless stated otherwise, the inter-examiner reliability is expressed as kappa

^bInter-examiner reliability expressed as "standard deviation agreement index," and it was about midway between perfect agreement rates and those expected by chance alone

^cRange of reproducibility between multiple pairs of examiners