27.

3 Transient Diffusion in a Finite-Dimensional Medium 507

The above equation shows that the rate of drug release will decrease as time increases until all of the
drug initially loaded into the bead is depleted, at which point WA will go to zero. Initially, the drug is
uniformly loaded into the bead. The initial amount of drug loaded in the bead is the product of the
initial concentration and the volume of the spherical bead
4
mAo ¼ cAo V ¼ cAo pR3
3
The cumulative amount of drug release from the bead over time is the integral of the drug release rate
over time
Zt
mAo  mA ðtÞ ¼ WA (t) dt
After some effort, the result is 0

mA (t) 6 X
1
1 DAB n2 p2 t=R2
¼ 2 e (27-23)
mAo p n¼1 n2
The analytical solution is expressed as an infinite series summation that converges as ‘‘n’’ goes
to infinity. In practice, convergence to a single numerical value can be attained by carrying the series
summation out to only a few terms, especially if the dimensionless parameter DAB t/R2 is relatively
large. It is a straightforward task to implement the infinite series summation on a spreadsheet
program such as Excel (Microsoft Corporation).

Table 27.1 Excel spreadsheet for drugrelease profile, Example 2

mAo ¼ 10 mg
DAB ¼ 3:00E  07 cm2 /s
R ¼ 0:326 cm
CAo ¼ 68:9 mg/cm3
Time, t (s) 0.0 18 180 1800 3600 7200 10800 14400 18000 21600
Time, t (h) 0.0 0.005 0.05 0.50 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00
mA (t)/mAo 1.0 0.964 0.925 0.774 0.689 0.578 0.500 0.439 0.389 0.347
1  mA (t)/mAo
0.0 0.036 0.075 0.226 0.311 0.422 0.500 0.561 0.611 0.653

Series term n ¼ 1 9.99E01 9.95E01 9.51E01 9.05E01 8.18E01 7.40E01 6.70E01 6.06E01 5.48E01
2 2.49E01 2.45E01 2.05E01 1.67E01 1.12E01 7.50E02 5.02E02 3.36E02 2.25E02
3 1.11E01 1.06E01 7.08E02 4.51E02 1.83E02 7.41E03 3.00E03 1.22E03 4.94E04
4 6.20E02 5.77E02 2.80E02 1.26E02 2.52E03 5.07E04 1.02E04 2.05E05 4.11E06
5 3.95E02 3.53E02 1.14E02 3.26E03 2.66E04 2.16E05 1.76E06 1.44E07 1.17E08
6 2.73E02 2.32E02 4.57E03 7.51E04 2.03E05 5.49E07 1.48E08 4.01E10 1.08E11
7 1.99E02 1.60E02 1.75E03 1.50E04 1.10E06 8.07E09 5.92E11 4.34E13 3.19E15
8 1.51E02 1.13E02 6.31E04 2.55E05 4.15E08 6.77E11 1.10E13 1.80E16 2.93E19
9 1.19E02 8.22E03 2.13E04 3.66E06 1.08E09 3.21E13 9.52E17 2.82E20 8.36E24
10 9.51E03 6.06E03 6.64E05 4.41E07 1.94E11 8.56E16 3.77E20 1.66E24 7.33E29
11 7.78E03 4.50E03 1.91E05 4.43E08 2.38E13 1.27E18 6.84E24 3.67E29 1.97E34
12 6.46E03 3.37E03 5.07E06 3.71E09 1.98E15 1.06E21 5.65E28 3.02E34 1.61E40
13 5.44E03 2.54E03 1.23E06 2.57E10 1.12E17 4.87E25 2.12E32 9.23E40 4.02E47
14 4.62E03 1.91E03 2.75E07 1.48E11 4.29E20 1.25E28 3.61E37 1.05E45 3.04E54
15 3.97E03 1.44E03 5.59E08 7.03E13 1.11E22 1.76E32 2.79E42 4.41E52 6.98E62
16 3.44E03 1.08E03 1.04E08 2.76E14 1.95E25 1.38E36 9.72E48 6.87E59 4.85E70
17 2.99E03 8.12E04 1.76E09 8.93E16 2.30E28 5.94E41 1.53E53 3.95E66 1.02E78
18 2.62E03 6.08E04 2.71E10 2.38E17 1.83E31 1.41E45 1.09E59 8.41E74 6.48E88
19 2.31E03 4.53E04 3.80E11 5.22E19 9.85E35 1.86E50 3.50E66 6.60E82 1.24E97
20 2.05E03 3.36E04 4.86E12 9.43E21 3.56E38 1.34E55 5.06E73 1.91E90 7.20E108