EVALUATION OF THE GASTRIC RETENTION PROPERTIES OF A CROSS-LINKED POLYMER COATED TABLET VERSUS THOSE OF A NONDISINTEGRATING TABLET

The gastric emptying time of tablets coated with a cross-linked polymer that enabled them to balloon and float in gastric media has been compared with that of uncoated, non-disintegrating tablets in both fasted and fed states, with healthy human volunteers using gamma camera scintigraphy. In the fed state, the balloon tablets prolonged the gastric emptying time by an average of 6 h over that of the uncoated tablets. The emptying times for both coated and uncoated tablets were much shorter in the fasting state. The balloon tablet did not significantly prolong the gastric emptying time in the fasted state.