The GOLD initiative 2011: a change of paradigm?

Ten years after the publication of the first GOLD strategy (Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of COPD) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the new revision published on the GOLD website at the end of 2011 represents a significant change in the diagnostic approach, clinical evaluation and therapeutic treatment of the disease. This revision debates not only the most significant aspects, which remain relatively intact, but also, and in particular, those that have been substantially modified compared with the GOLD revision from 2006.