[Chronic theophylline treatment in chronic airflow obstruction. Relations between doses, blood levels and expiratory flow].

We evaluated 31 patients from the ABS La Gavarra in Cornellà de Llobregat who fulfilled the following criteria: they were male, they had mild to moderate chronic limitation to airflow (CLAF), their disease and/or other accompanying conditions were stable, and they were receiving chronic slow release theophylline therapy. We investigated theophylline blood levels in these patients, attempting to correct the doses when appropriate, and we correlated the therapeutic levels with the subjective clinical improvement, which was also assessed by peak flow meter values. A total of 60% of patients had therapeutic levels. After correcting the dose, 64% had therapeutic levels with an increase of spirometric values of 4%. This improvement has small clinical relevance as it does not reach the expected 15%. The results of this study help to reassess the leading role of theophyllines in the therapeutic armamentarium available for CLAF.