A 57-year-old woman presents with cough and fever. What percussion finding would you anticipate?

In the context of a 57-year-old woman presenting with cough and fever, it is likely that she may have an underlying pneumonia or another respiratory condition that involves fluid accumulation or consolidation in the lungs. When assessing lung conditions through percussion, the characteristics of the sound produced can indicate different underlying pathologies.

Dullness to percussion occurs when there is a loss of the normal air-filled quality of the lung, often due to fluid (such as in pleural effusion) or solid masses (like in lung consolidation due to pneumonia). When such conditions are present, the percussion note becomes less resonant and more muffled compared to healthy lung tissue, which produces a resonant sound.

In this case, if pneumonia is suspected, areas where lung consolidation occurs will produce a dull sound upon percussion. This finding aligns with the clinical presentation of cough and fever, which can indicate infection in the lungs, leading to dullness as an expected percussion finding. Therefore, the response of dullness reflects the pathological changes in lung density associated with infection or fluid accumulation.