Application of a biomagnetic measurement system (BMS) to the evaluation of gastrointestinal transit of intestinal pressure-controlled colon delivery capsules (PCDCs) in human subjects.

PURPOSE

For determination of the transit time through various parts of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, we developed a method that provides the location of disintegration and drug release. This method involves GI magnetomarkergraphy (GIMG) using a 129-channel Shimadzu vector biomagnetic measurement system (BMS).

METHODS

To magnetically label the pressure-controlled colon delivery capsule (PCDC) containing 75.0 +/- 0.5 mg of caffeine as a tracer drug, small capsule caps containing 90 mg of ferric oxide powdered magnetite (Fe2O3) were attached to PCDCs. After orally administration to fasted human volunteers, saliva samples were collected hourly and salivary caffeine concentration was measured. At the same time, locations of the magnetic PCDC were detected by BMS just after the PCDCs were magnetized with the coils of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. The magnetic field distributions were analyzed and the estimated positions were shown on the MRI picture of the same subject's abdominal structure.

RESULTS

We magnetized PCDC with permanent magnets or an electromagnet before ingestion and the estimated locations of PCDC in the GI tract exhibited high estimation error. In order to increase the precision of estimated localization of PCDCs, PCDCs were magnetized within the coils of the MRI. As a result, these PCDCs had strong magnetic dipoles that were parallel to the sensor unit of BMS in every measurement, and therefore the spatial resolution of the PCDC's two-dimensional positions in the organs of the GI tract was within a range of several millimeters.

CONCLUSIONS

GIMG is a powerful tool for the study of colon delivery efficiencies of PCDCs. The main advantage of GIMG is the capability to obtain even more detailed knowledge of the behavior and fate of solid pharmaceutical formulations during GI passage.