Use Of Theophylline And Sodium Cromoglycate In Adult Asthma

Sustained-release theophylline is frequently used in Japan to treat asthma. Theophylline has a long history as a therapeutic drug. In the early twentieth century, Plavec et al. reported that theophylline has a positive inotropic action on the myocardium. Since 1937, when Herrman et al. confirmed its effectiveness for asthma attacks, theophylline has been primarily considered a bronchodilator. In the 1970s and 1980s, theophylline was mainly used for the long-term management of asthma in the United States. Since the 1990s, the mainstay of treatment for asthma in the United States shifted to inhaled corticosteroids or inhaled corticosteroids plus long-acting inhaled β 2 agonists (LABAs). The clinical positioning of theophylline was thus negatively affected. Since the latter part of the 1990s, however, evidence has accumulated that theophylline inhibits the airway inflammation characteristically found in asthma and can be used with inhaled corticosteroids to treat asthma. In this paper, we describe the clinical significance of sustained-release theophylline for the long-term management of asthma.