Comparative Evaluation of Pellet Cushioning Agents by Various Imaging Techniques and Dissolution Studies

Most of the commercially available pharmaceutical products for oral administration route are marketed in the tablet dosage forms. However, compression of multiparticulate systems is a challenge for the pharmaceutical research and industry, especially if the individual unit is a coated particle, as the release of the active ingredient depends on the integrity of the coating. In the present study, polymer-coated pellets tableted with different types of excipients (powder, granules, pellets) then were investigated by various tablet-destructive (microscopic) and tablet non-destructive (microfocus X-ray; microCT) imaging methods. The information obtained from the independent evaluation of the in vitro drug release profiles model is confirmed by the results obtained by image analysis, regardless of whether X-ray or stereomicroscopic images of the coated, tableted pellets were used for image analysis. The results of this study show that the novel easy-to-use, fast, and non-destructive MFX method is a good alternative to the already used microscopic image analysis methods regarding the characterization of particulates, compressed into tablets.