Abstract
BACKGROUND: The use of theophylline in the treatment of patients with asthma is controversial. MATERIALS & METHOD: We assigned 120 patients with moderate-to-severe asthma into 3 groups of equal numbers in order of their presentation. All study patients received inhaled beclomethasone (500 µg daily) and a short-acting inhaled ẞ-2 agonist (salbutamol by metered dose inhaler) as necessary up to 3-4 times a day. In addition, patients in Group 2 (control group) were prescribed a placebo tablet, and patients in Group 3 received theophylline (Theo-Dur) 250 mg orally, every-other-day at bed time (10 PM). Groups 2 and 3 were blinded to their oral medication. The duration of the study was 6 months. The physician administering the pulmonary func- tion tests was blinded to the study assignment of the patients. RESULTS: The means and standard deviations for the 3 groups for FEV1, FVC, and PEFR on admission to the study did not vary significantly by ANOVA (FEV1, p = 0.718; FVC, p = 0.402; PEFR, p = 0.453); whereas, at the close of the study the improvement in all 3 values for Group 3 was significant at p = 0.0001. The number of hospital admissions from Group 3 was also significantly lower than those of the other groups (ANOVA, p = 0.0017). CONCLUSION: Although the serum theophylline concentrations were probably below the therapeu- tic range because of the low, alternate-day dose (they were not measured), this study suggests that treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe asthma with theophylline may be beneficial. [Respir Care 1996;41(6):520-523]
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