A new, highly slective high-performance liquid-chromatographic (HPLC) assay for theophylline and its major metabolites in urine is described. The method utilizes an ion-pair extraction followed by separation and quantitation by reversed-phase ion-pair gradient-elution HPLC. Comparison with several other methods showed that interferences were present in too many blank urine samples to allow for the accurate quantitation of the metabolites of theophylline by direct injection--isocratic HPLC assays. Sample processing involving ion-pair complexing and extraction together with gradient-elution systems is recommended for accurate pharmacokinetic studies.