title: Iontophoretic transdermal drug delivery: a multi-layered approach.
abstract: We present a multi-layer mathematical model to describe the transdermal drug release from an iontophoretic system. The Nernst-Planck equation describes the basic convection-diffusion process, with the electric potential obtained by solving the Laplace's equation. These equations are complemented with suitable interface and boundary conditions in a multi-domain. The stability of the mathematical problem is discussed in different scenarios and a finite-difference method is used to solve the coupled system. Numerical experiments are included to illustrate the drug dynamics under different conditions.
authors.affiliation: Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo, CNR, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pontrelli
authors.affiliation: Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo, CNR, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lauricella
authors.affiliation: CMUC, Department of Mathematics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: José A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: CMUC, Department of Mathematics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gonçalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pena
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D006801:Humans; D007478:Iontophoresis; D008962:Models, Theoretical
keywords: Nernst–Plank equations; drug release; finite-difference methods; iontophoresis