News Health & Medicine Asthma pressure may shrink airways By Tina Hesman Saey October 4, 2002 at 1:31 pm - More than 2 years ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to print (Opens in new window) Print From San Francisco, at the spring national meeting of the American Chemical Society The chest tightness that an asthma patient experiences may be in part the cause of the disease as well as a symptom. Most physicians and scientists have believed that inflammation alone causes air passages to gradually narrow in asthmatics.