Penetration of the human nail plate: the effects of vehicle pH on the permeation of miconazole.

In order to assess the relative permeability of the nail plate to ionized and unionized drugs the permeation of miconazole at varying pH has been followed as a function of time. The pH was adjusted from 3.1 to 8.2 to obtain between 5 and 100% dissociation of the drug. No significant difference in the rate of permeation was demonstrated. The data suggests that the ionic form of miconazole dissolves as easily in the nail plate as the free base and, therefore, topical bioavailability can be enhanced by decreasing the formulation pH thereby increasing drug solubility.