A study to evaluate the effect of dosing time of deriphyllin retard as bronchodilator in asthma patients

The present study was performed on outpatients at the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, KIMS hospital and research centre, diagnosed with mild to moderate persistent bronchial asthma as per the guidelines of Global strategy for diagnosis and prevention of bronchial asthma. With the clearance from IEC, VIPS, patients who gave the informed consent fulfilling the inclusion/exclusion criteria were included in the study. The main aim of the study was to compare the effect of morning dosing versus evening dosing of Deriphyllin retard, which has been reported to exhibit circadian variation. Demographic data including the age, sex, weight, height, occupation, educational status, family history, region of stay was recorded. Patients were advised to take Deriphyllin retard orally, either in morning or evening based on the group in which they were included. Group A consisted of patients who were advised to take morning dose of Deriphyllin, and group B consisted of patients who were advised to take evening dose of Deriphyllin retard. Efficacy of Deriphyllin was assessed by pulmonary function test (Spirometry) parameters such as Forced Expiratory Volume per Second (FEV1); Forced Vital Capacity (FVC); FEV1/FVC ratio. Spirometry test was performed for all patients in both groups at baseline and follow-up on the 5th day. FEV1 was found to be increased to a higher extent when Deriphyllin Retard was administered in the evening. The FEV1/FVC ratio defines the presence of airway obstruction to be present when it is less than 0.75 [according to American Thoracic Society) and less than 0.70 (according to British Thoracic Society]. In the present study the FEV1/FVC was found to 0.769±0.178 after morning dose and 1.01±0.42 after evening dose, which indicates that the evening dose is more efficient in comparison to morning dose. Hence we can conclude that in our study population evening dose would be a better option in comparison to morning dose for treatment with Deriphyllin Retard. Key