bronchial
Meaning of bronchial: Bronchial describes anything relating to the bronchi, the large airways connecting the windpipe to the lungs, as in bronchial asthma or bronchial breath sounds.
Definition of bronchial
Bronchial is an adjective describing something related to the bronchi, the large air passages that carry air from the trachea into the lungs and continue branching into smaller airways within lung tissue. The term is commonly attached to other words to describe a structure, sound, or condition connected to these airways.
Bronchial asthma, for example, refers to asthma affecting the bronchi and their smaller branches, causing episodes of airway narrowing, while bronchial breath sounds describe a particular quality of breath sound heard through a stethoscope that differs from the normal, softer sound expected over most of the lung.
Bronchial secretions, bronchial washing, and bronchial biopsy are other examples of the term applied to fluid, samples, or tissue obtained from these airways, generally during a procedure such as bronchoscopy used to evaluate the airways directly.
How bronchial is built
- bronch/o Combining form · Greek bronchus, airway
- -ac, -al, -ar, -ary, -eal, -ic Suffix · Greek and Latin pertaining to, relating to
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
The physician noted bronchial breath sounds over the right lower lung field on examination.
Good to know
Bronchial breath sounds heard over an area of lung where they are not normally expected can indicate that underlying lung tissue has become denser than usual, such as with consolidation from pneumonia.
Word origin
Where “bronchial” comes from
Formed from Greek bronchos, meaning windpipe.