Rational Use of Theophylline for Bronchodilatation

A recent New England Journal of Medicine publication¹ demonstrated the value of applying pharmacokinetic principles in the administration of intravenous theophylline. Other data² have shown further the importance of such pharmacokinetic principles and demonstrated the need for oral doses ranging from 400 to 3200 mg per day to maintain therapeutic serum concentrations of 10 to 20 μg per milliliter. This range of doses was a result of wide variations in metabolic degradation processes among the adult patients studied, half-lives after intravenous administration ranging from 181 to 571 minutes. Degradation rates are equally variable among children but apparently distributed about a . . .