1. The vibrations produced by a sounding body, transmitted by the air or other medium, and perceived by the internal ear. 2. An elongated cylindrical, usually curved, instrument of metal, used for exploring the bladder or other cavities of the body, for dilating strictures of the urethra, esophagus, or other canal, for calibrating the lumen of a body cavity, or for detecting the presence of a foreign body in a body cavity. 3. To explore or calibrate a cavity with a s.. 4. Whole; healthy; not diseased or injured.
- adventitious breath sounds sounds heard by auscultation of abnormal lungs. SEE ALSO: rale, rhonchus, crackle, crepitation, wheeze, rub, crunch.
- after-s. aftersound.
- anvil s. SYN: bellmetal resonance.
- auscultatory s. a rale, murmur, bruit, fremitus, or other s. heard on auscultation of the chest or abdomen.
- bell s. SYN: bellmetal resonance.
- bowel sounds relatively high-pitched abdominal sounds caused by propulsion of intestinal contents through the lower alimentary tract.
- breath sounds a murmur, bruit, fremitus, rhonchus, or rale heard on auscultation over the lungs or any part of the respiratory tract. SYN: respiratory sounds.
- bronchial breath sounds loud, high-pitched, hollow-toned breath sounds heard by auscultation mainly over the sternum; when heard elsewhere in the chest they may indicate consolidated lung or another pathologic condition.
- bronchovesicular breath sounds sounds intermediate between bronchial and vesicular breath sounds; they can be abnormal, but are normal when heard between the 1st and 2nd intercostal spaces anteriorly and posteriorly between scapulae.
- Campbell s. a miniature s. with a short round-tipped beak, especially curved for the deep urethra of the young male.
- cannon s. SYN: bruit de canon.
- coconut s. a s. like that produced when a cracked coconut is tapped; it is elicited by percussing the skull of a patient with osteitis deformans.
- cracked-pot s. SYN: cracked-pot resonance.
- Davis interlocking s. a s. comprised of two instruments with curved male and female tips, used to introduce a catheter into the bladder in the treatment of ruptured urethra; the male s. is introduced into the distal urethra via the meatus and the female s. is passed downward through the bladder neck into the proximal urethra via an open cystotomy; the ends of the two instruments are engaged, with the female s. guiding the male s. upward into the bladder; a catheter is then sutured to the tip of the male s. and withdrawn through the urethra to restore continuity of its lumen.
- double-shock s. SYN: bruit de rappel.
- eddy sounds sounds that punctuate the continuous murmur of patent ductus arteriosus, imparting to it a characteristically “uneven” quality.
- ejection sounds click-like sounds during ejection from a hypertensive aorta or pulmonary artery or associated with stenosis (particularly congenital) of the aortic or pulmonic valve.
- first heart s. (S1) occurs with ventricular systole and is mainly produced by closure of the atrioventricular valves.
- fourth heart s. (S4) the s. produced in late diastole in association with ventricular filling due to atrial systole and related to reduced ventricular compliance. It is a low frequency oscillation that may be normal at older ages owing to a physiologic decline in ventricular compliance but is nearly always abnormal at younger ages if it is of high intensity or palpable. It is common in ventricular hypertrophy, particularly with hypertension, and is almost invariable during acute myocardial infarction. Fourth heart sounds may arise from the right or left ventricle or both. SYN: atrial s..
- friction s. the s., heard on auscultation, made by the rubbing of two opposed serous surfaces roughened by an inflammatory exudate, or, if chronic, by nonadhesive fibrosis. SYN: friction murmur, friction rub.
- gallop s. the abnormal third or fourth heart s. which, when added to the first and second sounds, produces the triple cadence of gallop rhythm. SEE ALSO: gallop.
- heart sounds the noise made by muscle contraction and the closure of the heart valves during the cardiac cycle. See first heart s., second heart s., third heart s., fourth heart s.. SYN: cardiac s., heart tones.
- hippocratic succussion s. a splashing s. elicited by shaking a patient with hydro- or pyopneumothorax, the physician's ear being applied to the chest.
- Korotkoff sounds sounds heard over an artery when pressure over it is reduced below systolic arterial pressure, as when blood pressure is determined by the auscultatory method.
- Le Fort s. a curved s. threaded for a filiform bougie, used for dilation of urethral strictures in the male when small caliber or presence of false passages prevents safe passage of a standard s. or catheter.
- percussion s. any s. elicited on percussing over one of the cavities of the body.
- pericardial friction s. a to-and-fro grating, rasping, or, rarely, creaking s. heard over the heart in some cases of pericarditis, due to rubbing of the inflamed pericardial surfaces as the heart contracts and relaxes; during normal sinus rhythm it is usually triphasic; during any rhythm it may be biphasic or uniphasic. SYN: pericardial rub, pericardial friction rub.
- pistol-shot s. s. created by lightly compressing an artery during aortic regurgitation; sometimes is audible without compression.
- pistol-shot femoral s. a shotlike systolic s. heard over the femoral artery in high output states, especially aortic insufficiency; presumably due to sudden stretching of the elastic wall of the artery; pistol-shot sounds may also be heard over other relatively large arteries, e.g., brachial, radial.
- posttussis suction s. a s. produced by the falling back of a drop of mucus or pus into a pulmonary cavity after the latter has been emptied by coughing.
- respiratory sounds SYN: breath sounds.
- sail s. a s., likened to the snapping of a sail; the abnormal first heart s. in some patients with Ebstein anomaly.
- second s. SYN: second heart s..
- second heart s. (S2) the second s. heard on auscultation of the heart; signifies the beginning of diastole and is due to closure of the semilunar valves. SYN: second s..
- Simpson uterine s. a slender flexible metal rod used to calibrate or dilate the cervical canal, or to hold the uterus in various positions during gynecologic surgery.
- Sims uterine s. a slender flexible s. with a small projection about 7 cm from its tip, used to estimate the size and caliber of the uterine cavity.
- splitting of heart sounds the production of major components of the first and second heart sounds (rarely the third and fourth) due to contribution by the left-sided and right-sided valves; thus, the first heart s. would have a mitral and a tricuspid component and the second heart s. an aortic and pulmonic component. The latter are best appreciated during respiration, with inspiration delaying the pulmonic component and producing an earlier aortic component.
- succussion s. the noise made by fluid with overlying air when shaken, such as occurs with gastric dilation or with fluid and air in a pleural cavity (hydropneumothorax).
- third s. SYN: third heart s..
- third heart s. (S3) occurs in early diastole and corresponds with the end of the first phase of rapid ventricular filling; normal in children and younger people but abnormal in others. SYN: third s..
- tic-tac sounds SYN: embryocardia.
- to-and-fro s. doubling of an abnormal murmur usually in systole and diastole and formerly applied to pericardial rubs.
- van Buren s. a standard s., available in several calibers, with a gently curved tip designed to follow the contour of the bulbous urethra in the male; used for urethral calibration or dilation.
- vesicular breath sounds the gentle rustling sounds of normal breathing heard by auscultation over most of the lung fields; the inspiratory phase is usually longer than the expiratory.
- waterwheel s. s. made by cardiac motion inducing splashes in the presence of fluid and air within the pericardial sac.
- xiphisternal crunching s. Hamman sign.
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sound 'sau̇nd adj
1) free from injury or disease: exhibiting normal health
2) deep and undisturbed <a \sound sleep>
sound·ness n
sound n
1) a particular auditory impression <heart \sounds heard by auscultation>
2) the sensation perceived by the sense of hearing
3) mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (as air) and is the objective cause of hearing
sound vt to explore or examine (a body cavity) with a sound
sound n an elongated instrument for exploring or examining body cavities <a uterine \sound>
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1. n. a long rodlike instrument, often with a curved end, used to explore body cavities (such as the bladder) or to dilate stricture in the urethra or other canals.
2. vb. to explore a cavity using a sound.
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(sound) [L. sonus] 1. a pressure wave that propagates through an elastic medium, which may be a gas, liquid, or solid; waves with a frequency between 20 and 20,000 Hz provide the stimulus for the subjective sensation of hearing. 2. the effect produced on the organ of hearing and its central connections by the vibrations of air or some other medium. 3. a noise, normal or abnormal, heard within the body; for other sounds see under bruit, fremitus, murmur, and rale. 4. an instrument to be introduced into a cavity to detect a foreign body or to dilate a stricture.Medical dictionary. 2011.