Browsing by Author "Cowie, Robert"

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    Adult Asthma Consensus Guidelines Update 2003
    (2004-01-01) Lemière, Catherine; Bai, Tony; Balter, Meyer; Bayliff, Charles; Becker, Allan; Boulet, Louis-Philippe; Bowie, Dennis; Cartier, André; Cave, Andrew; Chapman, Kenneth; Cowie, Robert; Coyle, Stephen; Cockcroft, Donald; Ducharme, Francine M; Ernst, Pierre; Finlayson, Shelagh; FitzGerald, J Mark; Hargreave, Frederick E; Hogg, Donna; Kaplan, Alan; Kim, Harold; Kelm, Cheryle; O’Byrne, Paul; Sears, Malcolm; Markham, Andrea White; on behalf of the Canadian Adult Consensus Group of the Canadian Thoracic Society,
    BACKGROUND: Several sets of Canadian guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma have been published over the past 15 years. Since the last revision of the 1999 Canadian Asthma Consensus Report, important new studies have highlighted the need to incorporate new information into the asthma guidelines.OBJECTIVES: To review the literature on adult asthma management published between January 2000 and June 2003; to evaluate the influence of the new evidence on the recommendations made in the 1999 Canadian Asthma Consensus Guidelines and its 2001 update; and to report new recommendations on adult asthma management.METHODS: Three specific topics for which new evidence affected the previous recommendations were selected for review: initial treatment of asthma, add-on therapies in the treatment of asthma and asthma education. The resultant reviews were discussed in June 2003 at a meeting under the auspices of the Canadian Thoracic Society, and recommendations for adult asthma management were reviewed.RESULTS: The present report emphasises the importance of the early introduction of inhaled corticosteroids in symptomatic patients with mild asthma; stresses the benefit of adding additional therapy, preferably long-acting beta2-agonists, to patients incompletely controlled on low doses of inhaled corticosteroids; and documents the essential role of asthma education.CONCLUSION: The present report generally supports many of the previous recommendations published in the 1999 Canadian Asthma Consensus Report and provides higher levels of evidence for a number of those recommendations.
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    Antituberculous Drug Resistance in Western Canada (1993 to 1994)
    (1997-01-01) Long, Richard; Fanning, Anne; Cowie, Robert; Hoeppner, Vernon; Fitzgerald, Mark; The Western Canada Tuberculosis Group,
    OBJECTIVES: To estimate the magnitude of antituberculous drug resistance and identify prospectively the risk factors for its development in tuberculosis (TB) patients in western Canada over a one-year period.DESIGN: Comparison of drug-resistant and nondrug-resistant cases of TB.SETTING: Western Canada.PATIENTS: All people with TB reported to the TB registries of Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan between February 1, 1993 and January 31, 1994.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Drug susceptibility testing was performed in all cases of culture-positive tuberculosis. Patients at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection were serotested.RESULTS: Of 534 culture positive cases of TB, 37 (6.9%) were drug resistant. Odds ratios suggested that the risk of drug resistance was significantly higher among those with reactivation than among those with new disease, and among those born outside of Canada than among those born in Canada. Ninety per cent of the foreign-born patients with drug-resistant disease were from Asia. Of the 35 patients with drug resistance whose type of resistance was known, 76% had initial and 24% had acquired drug resistance. The initial resistance rate in Asian-born patients was 14%. Most of the 37 drug-resistant cases were resistant to isoniazid (68%), streptomycin (49%) or both (22%). Twelve (32%) of the 37 cases were resistant to two or more first-line drugs. Of 14 patients who were HIV seropositive only one, a foreign-born patient, was drug resistant.CONCLUSION: Antituberculous drug resistance is low among Canadian-born patients in western Canada, but not uncommon among those born outside Canada. Initial therapy of foreign-born patients should include four first-line drugs.
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    Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Alberta and British Columbia, 1989 to 1998
    (1999-01-01) Hersi, Ahmed; Elwood, Kevin; Cowie, Robert; Kunimoto, Dennis; Long, Richard
    OBJECTIVE: To describe the extent of the problem of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Alberta and British Columbia from 1989 to 1998.DESIGN: A retrospective, population-based descriptive study of all notified MDR-TB cases in the context of all notified TB cases, all notified culture-positive TB cases and all notified drug-resistant TB cases.SETTING: Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and their TB registries.PATIENTS: All people with TB reported to the TB registries of Alberta and British Columbia between January 1, 1989 and June 30, 1998.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Drug susceptibility testing was performed in all cases of culture-positive TB. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data on all cases of MDR-TB were recorded.RESULTS: Of 4606 notified cases of TB, 3553 (77.1%) were culture positive. Of these, 365 (10.3%) were drug resistant; of the drug-resistant cases, 24 (6.6%) were MDR. Most MDR-TB patients were foreign-born; of the four Canadian-born patients, two were infected while travelling abroad. Although foreign-born patients were significantly more likely to harbour drug-resistant strains, 14.3% versus 4.8%, respectively (Pud_less_than0.001), among those who were harbouring a drug-resistant strain, the proportion of Canadian-born versus foreign-born patients with an MDR strain was the same (6.7% versus 6.6%, respectively). From 1994 to 1998 versus 1989 to 1993, the proportion of all drug-resistant strains that were MDR was greater (9.0% versus 4.3%, respectively), but the difference was not statistically significant. Isolates from 16 of the 24 MDR-TB cases had been archived. Each of these was fingerprinted and found to be unique. Most MDR-TB cases (88%) were respiratory. Of those tested for human immunodeficiency virus (n=17), only one was seropositive. MDR-TB was ‘acquired’ in 67% and ‘primary’ in 33% of cases. Eight (33%) of the MDR-TB cases received curative courses of treatment, six (25%) are still being treated, and the remainder have either died (five, 21%), transferred out (four, 17%) or become ‘chronic’ (one, 4%). No secondary case of MDR-TB has been identified in Alberta and British Columbia.CONCLUSIONS: Most MDR-TB in Alberta and British Columbia is imported. The proportion of all drug-resistant cases that are MDR appears to be increasing, but not because of disease acquired from recent contact with MDR-TB in Canada.