[The protective effect of theophylline in exercise-induced asthma in childhood]

In order to study the protective effect of theophylline on exercise-induced asthma in children, we investigated the lung function of 16 children with documented bronchial asthma. Exercise provocation was performed by running on a treadmill for 6 minutes before and after two dose regimens of theophylline (10 and 20 mg/kg body weight). While for FEV1 the low dose regimen only showed a trend (p < 0.1), there was a slight but significant improvement in the high dose regimen (p < 0.05). Concerning sRaw both groups showed a small but significant improvement compared with the baseline values (p < 0.05). We conclude that in addition to its bronchodilatory effect theophylline may modulate exercise induced bronchospasm in asthmatic children.