Theophylline does not potentiate the effects of a low dose of dexamethasone in horses with recurrent airway obstruction

Abstract

Oral theophylline for 7 days did not improve the effects of a low dose of dexamethasone for the treatment of horses with RAO.

Efficacy of oral prednisolone and dexamethasone in horses with recurrent airway obstruction in the presence of continuous antigen exposure

“…In a previous study, conducted by Cesarini et al. (2006) under similar conditions and evaluating the efficacy of oral dexamethasone (0.05 mg/kg bwt q.…”

“…(2004) reported that feeding impairs bioavailability. Thirdly, the formulations used were different: while powdered formulation was used herein, Cesarini et al. (2006) used an i.v.…”

“…However, in a previous study in which no concurrent environmental modifications were made, no improvement in pulmonary function was seen in the oral dexamethasone‐treated group (at 0.05 mg/kg bwt, q. 24 h for 7 days) (Cesarini et al. 2006).…”

Pharmacological treatments in asthma‐affected horses: A pair‐wise and network meta‐analysis

“…Data obtained from 319 equine asthma-affected horses were extracted from 32 studies, some of which investigated two or more drugs. Ten studies used antimuscarinic agents (eight used a systemic form and one an inhaled form, one used both) [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]; nine studies used b 2 -AR agonists (two used a systemic form and seven an inhaled form) [29,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]; 13 studies used corticosteroids (nine used a systemic form and one an inhaled form, three used both) [31,32,35,36,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]; three used methylxanthines via systemic administration [29,33,53]; three studies used chromones via inhalation [56][57][58]; two studies used furosemide via systemic administration [11,59]; and one study, including two clinical trials, used a PDE4 inhibitor via systemic administration [36]. Overall, the available inclusion criteria and populations' characteristics of the analysed studies were homogeneous.…”

Heaves, an asthma‐like disease of horses

“…Methylxanthine derivatives are non‐specific PDE inhibitors that have beneficial effects on lung function in horses with heaves but have low therapeutic index 239–243 . The potentiating effects of corticosteroids by low‐dose theophylline reported in asthmatics 244 was not observed in horses with heaves after short‐term administration 241 .…”