[Development of dissolution method for warfarin sodium tablets].

Warfarin is intensively discussed drug with narrow therapeutic index. In the past, its generic substitution was identified as a cause of bleeding. Altered quality of the active substance or varying drug content was discussed. The substance quality can be evaluated with adequate dissolution method. An official dissolution method with aqueous medium exists, however this method is non-discriminatory. In the first 15 minutes the whole amount of the active pharmaceutical ingredient is released from a tested dosage form, which does not allow comparison between tablets from different producers and it also makes difficult to track the changes throughout stability testing. In the literature, there is a well known method using pH 6.8 buffer, which seems to be a suitable alternative to water. The aim of this study was to prove, that this alternative medium, when two stirring speeds for dissolution (50 or 25 rpm) are used, will be suitable for calculation of similarity and difference factor and if it will be eventually discriminatory with regard to particle size and radial hardness. For this purpose we prepared tablets with 10 mg of warfarin sodium in form of crystalline clathrate with isopropanol. Tablets differed by particle size of active pharmaceutical ingredient (d50 = 4.8, or d50 = 22.5 μm respectively) and by radial hardness (30, or 100 N respectively). The content uniformity of the tablets was determined using process capability index (Cpk) and Bergum method. It was confirmed that the dissolution medium with pH of 6.8 allows comparison of dissolution profiles by similarity and difference factors but under given conditions it is not discriminatory.Key words: warfarin dissolution method particle size distribution radial hardness similarity factor difference factor.