Ultra High Resolution Imaging for Permeability and Stability Measurements of Microcapsules for Controlled Drug Delivery

Stefan Henning¹, Daniel Edelhoff¹, Sabine Leick², Heinz Rehage², Dieter Suter¹

We present methods to evaluate the functionality of microcapsules used for controlled and site specific delivery of drugs. By quantitative measurements of time dependent contrast agent concentration in the capsules with micro scale MR imaging, we can obtain diffusion coefficients revealing how different capsule preparations decrease the permeability. In addition, we can also show how the capsules dissolve in intestinal media whereas they remain stable in gastric media by using a micro scale FLASH sequence.