Regional ventilation and changes in airway caliber have been studied by analysis of breath sounds. The aim of this study was to find which frequency band is most suitable for such purposes. The subjects were 19 healthy men. Breath sounds at 6 sites on the chest wall, airflow rate at the mouth, and ECG were digitized and recorded for 30 seconds. Power spectra of breath sounds at various frequency bands (10-50 Hz, 50-100 Hz, 100-150 Hz, ...., 950-1000 Hz) were calculated with a fast-Fourier transform (FFT) for every block of 512 points (102.4 msec), and mean airflow rates for the blocks were calculated. Data recorded during inspiration when airflow ranged between 0.5 L/s and 3 L/s were analyzed. For frequency bands from 150 Hz to 850 Hz the logarithms of the power spectra were linearly correlated with the logarithms of the airflow rates, and the correlation coefficients exceeded 0.8, but for lower frequency bands the correlations were poor. When the data contaminated by heart sounds and those recorded late in inspiration were excluded the correlations at frequency bands below 150 Hz improved. The slope of log (power)/log (flow) was about 4 for the bands from 100 to 300 Hz, but it became steeper (4 to 6) for higher frequency bands. This means that the power spectra were proportional to the fourth power of the airflow rate for bands below 300 Hz, but the relation was from the fourth to the sixth power for higher frequency bands.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)