Jan 6, 2025 · Your doctor is more likely to hear crackles when you’re breathing in, but they may happen when you breathe out, too. Rales happen when your airway snaps open as you breathe in.

Crackles are the clicking, rattling, or crackling noises that may be made by one or both lungs of a human or animal [2] with a respiratory disease during inhalation, and occasionally during exhalation.

Lung sounds are either normal (vesicular) or abnormal. Abnormal lung sounds include rhonchi, wheezing, stridor, crackles (rales) and pleural rub.

Dec 14, 2025 · Learn what crackles are, why they occur, and how to assess them to better identify respiratory conditions during patient evaluation.

Jun 4, 2021 · Also called crackles, rales are small rattling, clicking or bubbling sounds that occur when you inhale. Caused by airflow traveling through narrowed airways, wheezing is a high-pitched sound.

Dec 15, 2025 · What do crackles sound like? Crackles are described as bubbling, popping, or clicking noises that are best heard during inhalation and may be moist, dry, fine, or coarse.

Crackles are abnormal lung sounds characterized by discontinuous clicking or rattling sounds. Crackles can sound like salt dropped onto a hot pan or like cellophane being crumpled or like Velcro being …

Crackles in the lungs are typically caused by fluid accumulation or stiff airways snapping open, signaling issues like pneumonia, heart failure, or pulmonary fibrosis.

Nov 24, 2023 · Crackles occur as a result of small airways suddenly snapping open. They may indicate that a person’s lungs have fluid inside them or are not inflating correctly.

Aug 11, 2025 · Breathing sounds like popping or crackling can be unsettling. These sounds, often called crackles or rales, are common and stem from various underlying causes. While sometimes harmless, …