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Investigating Intra-Tablet Coating Uniformity With Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Dong, Y 
Lin, H 
Abolghasemi, V 
Gan, L 
Zeitler, JA 

Abstract

Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) has recently attracted a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry as a fast and non-destructive modality for direct quantification of thin film coatings that cannot easily be resolved with other techniques. While previous studies with SD-OCT have estimated the intra-tablet coating uniformity, the estimates were based on limited number of B-scans. In order to obtain a more accurate estimate, a greater number of B-scans are required that can quickly lead to an overwhelming amount of data. To better manage the data so as to generate a more accurate representation of the intra-tablet coating uniformity without compromising on the achievable axial resolution and imaging depth, we comprehensively examine an algebraic reconstruction technique with OCT to significantly reduce the data required. Specifically, a set of coated pharmaceutical tablets with film coating thickness in the range of 60-100 μm is investigated. Results obtained from performing the reconstruction reveal that only 30% of the acquired data are actually required leading to a faster convergence time and a generally good agreement with benchmark data against the intra-tablet coating uniformity measured with terahertz pulsed imaging technology.

Description

Keywords

coating, imaging method, optical coherence tomography, process analytical technology, tablet

Journal Title

Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0022-3549
1520-6017

Volume Title

106

Publisher

Elsevier Inc.
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L019922/1)
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from UK EPSRC Research Grant EP/L019787/1 and EP/L019922/1. H.L. also acknowledges travel support from Joy Welch Educational Charitable Trust.