title: Influence of age on theophylline clearance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
abstract: Theophylline total body clearance was calculated in 59 adult patients requiring intravenous aminophylline therapy. Group 1 consisted of 36 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients who were cigarette smokers without other conditions known to alter theophylline kinetics (age range: 22 to 79 years). Group 2 consisted of 23 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients who were cigarette smokers with a similar degree of congestive heart failure, but free of other characteristics or diseases that affect theophylline disposition (age range: 41 to 81 years). When individual theophylline total body clearance values were plotted against age in each group, poor correlation coefficients were found, indicating that age is not a good predictor of total body clearance of theophylline (group 1: r = 0.101; group 2: r = 0.276). Each group was also broken into 'younger' and 'older' patients. No significant differences in theophylline total body clearance values were found between the younger and older patients for either group I or 2, suggesting that a theophylline dosage reduction is not necessary in cigarette smoking patients over an arbitrary age limit.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking; D013806:Theophylline / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D013806:Theophylline