title: Reliability and predictive value of salivary theophylline levels.
abstract: The reliability and accuracy of salivary theophylline levels as a predictor of serum theophylline levels was investigated in 28 hospitalized chronic asthmatics, free of other chronic diseases, on continuous aminophylline infusion for greater than 24 hours. Twenty paired blood and saliva theophylline levels from 12 patients (group 1) were used to develop a formula for predicting serum theophylline levels from salivary levels. Twenty-one paired blood and saliva theophylline levels from 16 patients (group 2) were used to test the formula obtained. The formula predicted the serum theophylline concentration within 1.51 microgram/mL in 76% of the samples and within 1.88 microgram/mL in 100% of the samples. There was an excellent correlation between the predicted and actual serum theophylline concentrations, r = .93; thus under controlled conditions of steady-state pharmacokinetics in patients free of other diseases, salivary theophylline levels can be used to accurately predict serum levels.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000628:Aminophylline / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012463:Saliva / Q000032:analysis*; D013806:Theophylline / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000628:Aminophylline; D013806:Theophylline