The influence of non-disintegrating tablet dimensions and density on their gastric emptying in fasted volunteers

Abstract

The aim of this work was to identify the influence of tablet density on their gastric emptying in fasted subjects and to compare the findings with those of a previous study using the same subjects with tablets of a larger diameter. Tablets of 6.6 mm diameter and densities of 1.41 and 2.85 g cm-3 were labelled with 99mTc and 111In. They were coated with ethyl cellulose to ensure that they remained intact within the gastrointestinal tract. Their position within the gastrointestinal tract of fasted healthy subjects was monitored with a double-headed gamma camera at 1-min time intervals. The median gastric emptying time and the interquartile range were derived from the Bernoulli random event distribution. It was found that the dense tablets had a significantly longer gastric emptying time than the light tablets. Comparison with the results from the previous study gave a clear indication that irrespective of tablet density, the 6.6-mm tablets had longer gastric emptying times than the 12.0-mm tablets.