During auscultation, egophony is tested by having the patient make which sound while the examiner listens over the segment?

• A. Palpating the patient's trachea
• B. Measuring the excursion of the patient’s diaphragm
• C. Auscultating over the segment while the patient whispers “1, 2, 3”
• D. Auscultating over the segment while the patient says the sound “EEE”

Answer: (D)

Egophony is a transmitted-voice finding used to detect focal lung consolidation. To test it, you listen over the segment while the patient vocalizes the sound “EEE.” In areas of consolidation, the E sound is transmitted more clearly and tends to be heard as an A sound—a phenomenon called an E-to-A change. This alteration happens because the denser, airless tissue conducts voice vibrations differently than normal aerated lung tissue.

Other maneuvers assess different things: palpating the trachea checks alignment and movement of the airway, diaphragmatic excursion evaluates diaphragmatic mobility, and whispered pectoriloquy uses whispered numbers to detect increased transmission; egophony specifically uses the “EEE” vocalization to reveal the E-to-A change.