Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Practice Test

What type of breathing is found in asthma?

1. Crackles

2. Rhonchi

3. Wheezing

4. Stridor

The correct answer is: Wheezing

Asthma is a chronic respiratory condition that causes inflammation and narrowing of the airways, resulting in difficulty breathing. During an asthma attack, air flow is restricted, causing a wheezing sound. Crackles, or abnormal lung sounds, are typically heard in conditions such as pneumonia or heart failure, but not in asthma. Similarly, rhonchi are low-pitched rattling sounds that may be heard in bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but not asthma. Stridor, on the other hand, is a high-pitched wheezing sound that occurs when the upper airway becomes obstructed, usually due to an infection or foreign object. This is not a common finding in asthma, so the correct answer is indeed wheezing.