The Value of Maintenance Theophylline in Steroid-Dependent Asthma

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

We examined the value of maintenance theophylline at serum concentrations of 10 to 20 micrograms per milliliter in a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind trial of 33 children with steroid-dependent chronic asthma. Patients were free of all symptoms 63 +/- 6 per cent of the days (mean +/- S.E.M.) when taking theophylline as compared with 42 +/- 6 per cent when taking placebo (P < 0.01). Inhaled metaproterenol was required twice as often with placebo (P < 0.01), and additional daily corticosteroids were needed more than three times as often with placebo (P = 0.02). Daily peak flow measurements improved with theophylline (P < 0.01) as did monthly spirometric measurements and residual volume measured by plethysmography. Theophylline was associated with a 50 per cent increase in the number of patients able to complete an exercise test (P = 0.01) and with a smaller decrease in forced expiratory volume in one second among patients completing the exercise (P < 0.02). We conclude that maintenance bronchodilator therapy with theophylline can provide clinically important benefit for patients with chronic steroid-dependent asthma.