ABSTRACT
A 23-year-old woman goes to see her GP because she has had several episodes of shortness of breath in the past two months.The episodes last for up to 30 minutes and are sometimes associated with wheezing. She thinks that there is a connection with being exposed to dust as she had her worst episode when she was helping to clean a friend’s loft and another episode when she was changing the bag on her vacuum cleaner. She also thinks that cats trigger her shortness of breath. In addition, she has noticed that she sometimes has a dry cough, particularly at night. She has not had a productive cough, haemoptysis or chest pain. She is otherwise fit and well, takes regular exercise and her exercise tolerance remains unchanged.
