Asthma Diagnosis and Testing - Health Tips

Asthma is sometimes hard to diagnose because it can resemble other respiratory problems such as emphysema, bronchitis and lower respiratory infections. For that reason, asthma is under diagnosed - that is, many people with the disease do not know they have it and therefore are never treated.

Sometimes the only symptom is a chronic cough, especially at night. Or, coughing or wheezing may occur only with exercise. Some people mistakenly think they are having recurrent bronchitis, since respiratory infections usually settle in the chest in a person predisposed to asthma.

To diagnose asthma and distinguish it from other lung disorders, your Asthma & Allergy Center physicians rely on a combination of medical history, a thorough physical examination, and certain laboratory tests. These tests include spirometry (using an instrument that measures the air taken into and out of the lungs), peak flow monitoring (another measure of lung function), chest X-rays and sometimes blood and allergy tests.