NMR and MRI studies of drug delivery systems

Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy are now commonplace in most academic and industrial research environments. The ability of magnetic resonance techniques to provide the researcher with non-invasive, quantitative, physicochemical information in the disciplines of chemistry, biology, materials science, chemical engineering and medicine is widely known. In the last 10–15 years a variety of magnetic resonance methods have provided the pharmaceutical research community with valuable information, especially in the important area of drug delivery using solid dosage forms. This review will highlight recent advances in magnetic resonance techniques and its specific applications to further our understanding of pharmaceutical drug delivery systems. The review is aimed at non-clinical research and development, and will focus on the behaviour and characterisation of drug release from pellets, tablets and capsules, which are the most commonly used drug delivery systems. In addition to magnetic resonance techniques a number of complementary analytical techniques are mentioned to illustrate the importance of adopting a multi-modal analytical approach to gain a better scientific understanding of the behaviour of drug delivery devices.