Le continuum de prise en charge de l ’ asthme de la Société canadienne de thoracologie – Sommaire consensuel 2010 pour les enfants de six ans et plus et les adultes

1Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario; 2University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec; 3University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; 4University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec; 5University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia; 6University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta; 7University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario; 8University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; 9Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; 10University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba; 11Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec Correspondence: Dr M Diane Lougheed, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, Queen’s University, 102 Stuart Street, Kingston, Ontario K7L 2V6. Telephone 613-548-2348, fax 613-549-1459, e-mail mdl@queensu.ca Reprints: Ms Lise Dingwell, Administrative Coordinator, The Canadian Thoracic Society. Telephone 613-569-6411 ext 270, e-mail infocts@lung.ca The most recent, formal update of Canadian guidelines summarizing evidence-based care for adult (1) and pediatric (2) asthma was during a 2003 consensus conference. Since that revision, new scientific evidence regarding asthma epidemiology, pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy has been published. The Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) Respiratory Guidelines Committee has established formal processes for the development of new guidelines and the revision or adaptation of existing guidelines. The CTS Asthma Committee will follow the ADAPTE process (www.adapte.org) to conduct a detailed update of the 2003 Canadian Asthma Consensus Guidelines, beginning in the spring of 2010, focusing primarily on published international and national guidelines (3-5) and new literature. Recognizing this as a lengthy, formal process, the Asthma Committee identified the need for an updated comprehensive management continuum diagram encompassing asthma management for Canadians of all ages. The complexities and SpeCiAl ArTiCle