Seize that wheeze in time

Once your doctor has taken your history and has examined you thoroughly, he will be fairly sure of the diagnosis. This is one of those conditions for which history and clinical findings are sufficient to diagnose. However, your physician may perform certain tests to confirm the same:

Spirometry (Lung function tests)

Peak flow rate

X-ray chest

Some other diagnostic tests can also be done to confirm asthma; however these are not very commonly performed. These include:

Methacholine bronchial challenge

Nitric oxide test

In case of children, it can be hard to differentiate asthma from a wheezy bronchitis or pneumonia and the diagnosis should be very carefully established.