Rapid tablet swelling and disintegration during exposure to brightness-mode ultrasound

Controlled tablet disintegration is useful for chemical consistency checks. This study monitored the swelling of 54 analgesia tablets from two different batches, during 13-6-MHz brightness-mode sonication and simultaneous video recording. The tablets were placed on an acoustic reflector inside a container and sonicated from the top. Sonication shortened the displacement half-life by 17%-27%. During tablet swelling, their speed of sound increased linearly, confirming the linearity of this process. Diagnostic ultrasound significantly decreased tablet disintegration times, supporting the ultrasound-microbubble interaction hypothesis.