The clinical use and measurement of theophylline.

This report reviews the clinical use, metabolism and toxicity of theophylline (Section 1). Current chromatographic and immunoassay methods for theophylline measurement are discussed and practical methods using high-performance liquid chromatography are described (Section 2). Results from the UK National scheme for theophylline quality control and from an experiment to investigate the degree of interference by 1,7-dimethylxanthine in routine assays for theophylline are discussed in Section 3.