Gastrointestinal transit of an osmotic tablet drug delivery system.

The gastrointestinal transit of a radiolabelled osmotic tablet drug delivery system has been monitored in groups of young and elderly healthy subjects, using gamma scintigraphy. The gastric emptying and small intestinal transit times were similar for both groups of subjects. The units were observed to move through the gastrointestinal tract at about the same rate as the released contents, arriving at the caecum on average 7 h after dosing. The data suggest that tablet adhesion to the mucosal surface is unlikely to be the mechanism responsible for the side effects reported for the indomethacin formulation Osmosin.