Bronchitis diagnosis is mainly based on observing the patient symptoms and medical history. A doctor may ask various questions to a patient regarding cough , for how long it has been, how much of cough and other details.

The doctor may also ask that whether you have had cold or flu in the recent past, whether you smoke or spend time with people who smoke and whether you have been exposed to fumes, dust or air pollution. After enquiring about all these points he will use a stethoscope to a patient’s chest for finding out any specific sounds that shows lung inflammation like wheezing, moist rales and crackling which indicated narrow airway. Moist rales are basically a bubbling sound which is caused by the fluid secretion in the bronchial tubes and can be heard through a stethoscope.

If symptoms are prolonged and severe then chest x-ray may also be done in order to rule out any other disease or complication. During the cases of serious chronic respiratory disease the arterial blood gases are monitored. When a patient suffers from some special clinical circumstances like immunosuppression or do not respond to antibiotics then Gram stain and sputum culture may also be performed in order to determine the causative organism. Other additional tests for the diagnosis of bronchitis include oxygen saturation measurements and blood tests.