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Published by the ACAAI, this “roadmap,” provides practical, clinically relevant recommendations advising how and when treatment should be stepped up for children with uncontrolled asthma. 32 December 2018 Inhalation Back Page A new guideline named the "Pe- diatric Asthma Yardstick" has been published by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACA AI). It is in- tended to provide practical and clinically relevant recommenda- tions that advise how and when treatment should be stepped up for children with uncontrolled asthma. "ere is nothing like it in the current literature," said allergist. Bradley Chipps, MD, ACA AI president and lead au- thor of the paper, referring to the pediatric asthma yardstick as "a roadmap to know options for in- creasing pharmacological man- agement of asthma." Portions of the yardstick's Figure 1 and 2 are shown. Figure 1 illustrates step- ping up treatment for adolescents from one GINA (Global Initia- tive for Asthma) step to another. An asthma yardstick for treat- ment of adults was published by Chipps, et al. in 2017. "It is a practical resource for iden- tifying children with uncontrolled asthma who need a step-up in controller medicine," explained Chipps. "It describes how to start and/or adjust controller therapy based on the options that are cur- rently available for children, from infants to 18 years of age. e rec- ommendations are presented around patient profiles, by severity and age, and are based on current best practice strategies according to the most recent data and the authors' clinical experience." e pediatric yardstick is divided into three age groups: adolescents 12-18 years, school age children 6-11 years and young children under 5 years. It considers factors such as severity of symptoms, fre- The pediatric asthma yardstick Figure 1 continued on page 31