Drug intake and plasma concentrations in acute asthma

Abstract

Drug intake and plasma concentrations of theophylline and beta-agonists were recorded in 19 patients with acute asthma (peak expiratory flow rate less than 50% of predicted normal value and heart rate greater than 100 beats/min). 10 of the patients arrived at the hospital twice; accordingly 29 cases of acute asthma were studied. The results show that few patients overdosed their medicine before arrival at the hospital. On the contrary, they were often undertreated. This was verified both by plasma concentrations and drug intake reported by the patients. There was a poor correlation between plasma concentrations and drug intake in 14% of the 29 patient admissions.