Treatment of apnea and excessive periodic breathing in the full-term infant.

Twenty-two full-term infants, aged 0 to 6 weeks, with a history of unexplained apnea and respiratory abnormalities on pneumogram recordings, were treated with theophylline (average dose 7.5 mg/kg/day and average serum level 11 micrograms/ml). Subsequent recordings showed a significant decrease in the amount of periodic breathing (14.3% vs 0.7%) and apnea 10 to 14.9 seconds (12.8 vs 1.0/100 min) when compared to the initial pneumogram. It is concluded that theophylline therapy in this group of infants will result in a reduction of apnea and periodic breathing.