Modelling And Simulation of Topical Drug Diffusion in The Dermal Layer of Human Body

Abstract

We consider the problem of drug diffusion in the dermal layer of human body. Two existing mathematical models of the drug diffusion problem are recalled. We obtain that the existing models lead to inconsistent equations for the steady state condition. We also obtain those solutions to the existing models are unrealistic for some cases of the unsteady state condition, because negative drug concentrations occur due to the inappropriate assumption of the model. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a modified mathematical model, so that the model is consistent, and the solution is nonnegative for both steady and unsteady state conditions of the drug diffusion problem in the dermal layer of human body. For the steady state condition, the exact solution to the proposed model is given. For unsteady state condition, we use a finite difference method for solving the models numerically, where the discretisation is centred in space and forward in time. Simulation results confirm that our proposed model and method preserve the non-negativity of the solution to the problem, so the solution is more realistic than that of the old model.