[Fatal asthma. Description and study of risk factors, in the heart of an asthmatic population followed by the College of Pneumonology of the Southwest].

Objectives: To describe asthma deaths and to identify the principal short term risk factors in a population followed by twelve thoracic physicians in the South West of France between 1989 and 1995.

Methods: A multicentre clinical study in 312 pure asthmatics recruited freely and reviewed on average 37.4 months later by the same specialist.