The following report by medical editor Marilyn Brooks first aired on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2006.

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It's called paradoxical vocal cord dysfunction.

While the symptoms seem like asthma, the problem is not in the airways of the chest, but rather in the throat.

Imagine feeling fine until you walk into a room and you suddenly can't breathe.

"It's the most terrifying feeling in the world, and no one can help you," said Sally Reed.

Reed's symptoms began slowly, when her agency moved into a new building.

"It got to the point that within two hours of entering the building, I cannot breathe at all," said Reed.

Her doctor misdiagnosed it as asthma and ordered steroids -- but they didn't work.

So the doctor sent Reed to Dr. Andrej Petrov.

He discovered not asthma, but paradoxical vocal cord dysfunction.

"I cried all the way home," said Reed.

"When you breathe in your vocal cords should open. But in paradoxical vocal cord dysfunction, they close -- they cut off the airflow," said Petrov.

There is a way to determine asthma from paradoxical vocal cord dysfunction.

First, patients are given a breathing test.

If it's normal, they are given something called a methacholine challenge test in which they are exposed to graduated levels of methacholine.

Asthmatics will have a 20 percent drop in lung function with this test, but those with vocal cord dysfunction will not and that's the determining factor.

It happens when the vocal cords are irritated by:
Chemicals
Gasoline exhaust
Cigarette smoke
Exertion
Acid reflux disease

Fortunately, treatment for this disorder does not require medication.

"If an irritant bothers me, I have to remove myself from that area. I have breathing exercises I have to do, but it's so much more manageable. And I have my life back," said Reed.

Studies show up to 15 percent of people who think they have asthma actually have this vocal cord disorder. Another 15 percent have both asthma and vocal cord dysfunction.

That means a lot of people -- especially women -- are being treated with steroid medications unnecessarily.

So, if you have the symptoms of asthma but can't get relief from medications, ask to see a specialist who can test you for paradoxical vocal cord dysfunction.