Effective method for drug injection into subcutaneous tissue

Subcutaneous injection of drug solution is widely used for continuous and low dose drug treatment. Although the drug injections have been administered for a long time, challenges in the design of injection devices are still needed to minimize the variability, pain, or skin disorder by repeated drug injections. To avoid these adverse effects, systematic study on the effects of injection conditions should be conducted to improve the predictability of drug effect. Here, the effects of injection conditions on the drug permeation in tissues were investigated using X-ray imaging technique which provides realtime images of drug permeation with high spatial resolution. The shape and concentration distribution of the injected drug solution in the porcine subcutaneous and muscle tissues are visualized. Dynamic movements of the wetting front (WF) and temporal variations of water contents in the two tissues are quantitatively analyzed. Based on the quantitative analysis of the experimental data, the permeability of drug solution through the tissues are estimated according to permeation direction, injection speed, and tissue. The present results would be helpful for improving the performance of drug injection devices and for predicting the drug efficacy in tissues using biomedical simulation.