Asthma Diagnosis

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I'm still fairly new to this group, but I have a question if anyone

can help. I've seen a few people talking about asthma. My daughter,

who will be three in March, was diagnosed in May of 2003 with CF.

Our first doctor, when we were living in Pennsylvania, never

mentioned asthma to us at all. When we moved to Virginia and started

at our new CF clinic, the doctor did a CAT scan to fully check out

Sydney and see how she looks on the inside, I guess just to check out

her lungs. They said they saw " streaking " on her lungs which they

told me is a sign of asthma. We do have a strong family history of

asthma, so I just assumed that it sounds right, so she probably has

it too. Since then, I was telling my friend about it, who is a

respiratory therapist, and he said that he didn't think it was

possible to diagnose asthma on a CAT scan. Sydney has never had

an " asthma attack " - I've seen different family members have them,

and I've never seen her go through that. Being that she's almost

three years old, how do they really diagnose asthma? Is there a

standard test? Don't people with asthma usually have an allergy to

something that sets them off, therefore maybe she should have an

allergy test? It sounds trivial, but I hate for her to have

another " diagnosis " on top of her CF, if it really doesn't need to be

there.

Tracey, mom to Sydney, 3 w/cf