An attempt to establish an in vitro-in vivo correlation: case of paracetamol immediate-release tablets.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of developing different levels of in vitro-in vivo correlation for immediate-release paracetamol tablets using in vitro dissolution data obtained under various experimental conditions. The influence of agitation intensity and pH value of the dissolution media was investigated. The level B approach, using statistical moment analysis led to poor correlation results. The results obtained by numerical deconvolution in order to study level A correlation indicated that good correlation should be sought with moderate levels of agitation (beyond 50 rpm in rotating basket apparatus). Results obtained by numerical convolution showed the highest level of correlation, level A, with one-to-one relationship between observed and predicted in vivo profiles.