Comparison of intravenous aminophylline and salbutamol in severe asthma.

Severe asthma is the most common respiratory emergency treated in casualty departments of most hospitals. Intravenous aminophylline has been the mainstay of bronchodilator treatment for several years, although sudden death may occur after rapid administration,1 2 and it may be cardiotoxic.3 We thought that a selective adrenoceptor agonist might therefore be worthy of trial, and we report here our results with singleand double-blind comparative trials of intravenous aminophylline and salbutamol on 50 patients with severe asthma.