[Clinical study on the efficacy of a sustained-release theophylline-based preparation in infants with chronic asthma].

Authors describe 9 infants aged between 3 and 17 months, affected by recurrent episodes of bronchial asthma (at least one crises even month for three following months) and treated with sustained-release theophylline. During the 6 months of follow-up a total of 8 episodes of bronchial asthma in 7 subjects were observed. Seven out of 8 of these episodes occurred during the period of suspension of the therapy with the sustained-release theophylline. In each subjects, after 6 hours from the drug administration on average of 4-8 determinations of the theophylline blood levels were performed. More than 70 percent of the theophylline blood values has been found within the normal therapeutic range (6-20 micrograms/ml).