In the asthma patients or the patients with typical symptoms like cough, chest tightness, panting or breathlessness during or after doing exercises, your doctor would make a presumptive diagnosis of exercise induced asthma.  Your physician would probably start by performing a physical examination of ears, nose, throat and chest. He would certainly be asking a couple of questions from you related to the problems you face in day to day work.

Many a times it takes more than just the physical tests to diagnose that the symptoms are actually caused by exercise induced asthma or if the symptoms are not caused by something other exercise that triggers asthma. Also the doctor would prefer the lung tests to determine how effectively your lungs work. Initially the doctor will ask you to use inhaler prior to exercise. If the inhaler administered with albuterol or any other inhaled medication works well against the symptoms, using inhaler would be enough.

If the symptoms of asthma are still unclear the doctors will then follow the series of tests to check the factors responsible for developing symptoms of the asthma type. These tests include spirometry, exercise challenge,  peak flow measurement, nitric oxide test, Methacholine challenge allergy, allergy skin tests etc. some other diagnoses that your doctor may use are vocal cord dysfunction, heart failure, coronary heart disease and Gastroesophageal reflux disease.