PEDIATRICS Vol. 58 No. 4 October 1976, pp. 623-625
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Theophylline in asthma

C. Warren Bierman M.D.1

1 Division of Allergy, Children's Orthopedic Hospital and Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, 3900 Northeast 45th Street Seattle, Washington 98105

In this issue of Pediatrics, Ellis et al.1 have a study of the pharmocokinetics of theophylline, a study which is 40 years overdue and which was technically feasible 25 years ago. They show that children are not "little adults" in that the dosage of theophylline and the dosing intervals in children cannot be based on adult studies. Their work shows that theophylline has a significantly shorter biologic half-life in children, and that intersubject variation is far greater, with a range of 1.4 to 7.8 hours. Thus, compared to adults, children tend to require relatively larger amounts of theophylline per kilogram of body weight per day, and the doses may have to be given at shorter intervals of time.