Development of portable iontophoretic drug delivery device for androgenetic alopecia

[Recidive]

There seem to be advances in Korea in the design of iontopheresis devices specific for MPB drug delivery. Anyone from Korea can check this out?

http://pjms.com.pk/index.php/pjms/ar...wFile/1684/406

1) Development of a portable iontophoretic drug delivery device with in-vitro experiments for androgeneticalopecia treatment


ABSTRACT
Objectives: This study presents the development of a portable drug delivery device using an iontophoresis method to treat the androgenetic alopecia with in-vitro experiment. To treat this condition, the drugs for alopecia treatment need to be delivered into the scalp. Therefore, iontophoretic stimulation was used in a portable drug delivery device to enhance the penetration of the drug delivery.
Methodology: The designed device consisted of a drug container, an iontophoretic stimulation part and a rechargeable part. The iontophoretic part included a voltage boosted circuit, a protection circuit to achieve the iontophoresis effect and to protect the device. The device was tested with an oscilloscope and an in-vitro experiment was also performed to test the operation of the device.
Results: According to the experiment’s results, the iontophoresis circuit board performed well as did the designed drug delivery device. And the results of the in-vitro experiment also per- formed well with the penetration enhanced drug delivery via stimulation with the iontophoresis method.
Conclusion: The presented portable iontophoretic device enhances the penetration of the drug delivery as proven by the experiment. Also, a positive feature of the device is that it allows patients to use it everywhere by themselves. Improving the device’s functionality and usage safety will be researched in the future.

2) Design and Implementation of Iontophoresis Multiple Flexible Sensors for Treatment of Hair Loss

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10....-007-5076-0_66

Abstract
Most of drug for hair could not penetrate into stratum corneum (SC) and it is reducing the efficiency of the drug for curing hair loss. In order to penetrate the drug into the SC, an iontophoresis device is designed and implemented. The proposed iontophoresis device has a motor pump to move the electrode forward and backward, in order to attach the electrode on the scalp. The attached electrodes have uniform stress distribution because the same pressure is applied to the each electrode. After attaching the electrode, implemented iontophoresis stimulator is activated. The implemented iontophoresis device monitors current flow to the load and automatically cutoff when current flows above the threshold. The device is controlled by the touch screen interface and the ground between the embedded processor and PC is optically isolated. The implemented device is tested to manikin ant it is successfully activated.

[balding1983]

This would be very useful especially in the case of CB. However, this paper was published 2 years ago with no follow-up research from that team. Unfortunately it looks like they abandoned their work.