Chapter 8: Applications of MRI to Study Controlled Drug Release Formulations: From Model Formulations Toward the Understanding of Drug Products Behavior

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a flexible, multimodal technique with a plethora of imaging pulse sequences and their possible modifications. The goal of the chapter is to give researchers who work in the field of drug development, manufacturing, and formulation some hints concerning the applicability of MR imaging techniques to solve technological issues. Application of MR imaging (1) can give spatio-temporal characteristics of the controlled release formulations during hydration/dissolution; (2) can help to explain of mechanisms of matrix hydration and drug dissolution; (3) can explain sources of some dissolution profile features (e.g., variability and kinetics), including pharmacopoeial and non pharmacopoeial methods; and (4) can serve as an additional discriminatory test for in vitro dissolution studies. It is confirmed by presented examples of MR imaging applications in pharmaceutical technology—starting from basic studies focused on mechanisms of hydration and drug dissolution from simple model matrix systems to spatio-temporal characteristics of the more complex controlled release formulations, including commercial ones.