Yes, they can represent asthma.

Common signs and symptoms of asthma include:

• Cough: usually gets worse at night or early in the morning, resulting in difficulty sleeping.
• Wheezing: this is an abnormal breathing sound, almost like a whistling or squeaky sound.
• Chest tightness: a sensation of something squeezing or sitting on your chest.
• Shortness of breath: some individuals who suffer from asthma describe inability to catch their breath or feeling out of breath, sometimes to the extent of being unable to finish a full sentence. You may feel like you can't get air out of your lungs.                                       Tachycardia, however, is not part of asthma symptoms. Also remember that asthma symptoms are usually precipitated by specific triggers, like certain smells (classic examples include the smell of dust, fresh paint, or detergents), exercise, a respiratory infection, and sometimes emotional stress.

Mind you, these symptoms do not occur at the same rate in all people who have asthma. By the same token, having these symptoms doesn't always mean that you have asthma. The correct way to make an asthma diagnosis asthma is by taking a detailed medical history (including type and frequency of symptoms), a physical exam, and lung function tests (there are indicators of asthma according to the results of these tests).