[Simultaneous determination of disintegration and dissolution times of solid drug forms in a rotating flask dissolution tester. "Apparent" and "intrinsic" disintegration time].

'Disintegration' and 'dissolution' of solid drug dosage forms are considered as partial processes of drug liberation. Besides the (apparent) disintegration time that is determined in the official disintegration tester, there is a second (intrinsic) disintegration time which can be deduced from the experimental dissolution data, but shows only limited correlation with the former. Various methods for the graphical resolution of dissolution data and the calculation of the intrinsic disintegration time therefrom are discussed. For the simultaneous determination of disintegration and dissolution, the approved rotating flask method is recommended.