Patent Document ID: 8647295
Application ID: 13573244
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for accurately determining the rate of release of an agent dissolved in emulsion and/or microemulsion droplets, comprising: a) providing a probe comprising a section of relatively highly permeable membrane relative to any materials to which the membrane is attached for support and positioned between an inlet to a source of emulsion and an outlet to a receptacle, and through which membrane particles are to be transferred; b) putting said probe in contact with a medium into which the particles are to be transferred by diffusion; c) perfusing a known quantity (V W ) of dialysate containing said emulsion into the relatively highly permeable section of the probe; d) allowing said known quantity of emulsion to remain stationary for a resting time (t R ) sufficient to permit at least some of said emulsion particles to diffuse into the said medium; e) flushing out said known quantity of emulsion with a single pulse of a known volume (V S ) of emulsion into said receptacle at a flow rate sufficiently high that less than about 10% of said agent transfers out of the dialysate into said medium; f) determining the concentration of said agent remaining in said known volume (V S ); g) repeating steps (c) through (f) with at least one different (t R ); h) plotting the results of steps (f) and (g) to determine how said concentration changes with (t R ); i) taking the slope of the plot of step (h), which is the rate of release of said agent from the emulsion.