Sir.—The report of Outwater and Crone1 was interesting to me since it suggests that theophylline may be useful in the treatment of respiratory failure associated with acute viral bronchiolitis. In 19822 I reported my results using intravenous (IV) aminophylline to treat nine infants with acute bronchiolitis, aged 5 to 20 weeks, in respiratory failure. My method was very similar to that described by Outwater and Crone, 5 to 9 mg/kg of aminophylline IV over 20 minutes, followed by 0.5 to 1.0 mg/kg/hr until the patient was stabilized.
All infants had been admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Bronx (NY) Municipal Hospital Center; they had tachypnea, wheezing, radiographic hyperaeration, and an arterial carbon dioxide pressure of 45 mm Hg or greater. One to two hours after IV aminophylline the arterial carbon dioxide pressure decreased from an average of 53 to 42 mm Hg (P<.001);