Patent ID: 8114149
Filing Date: 2012-02-14
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
1. A balloon expandable stent in the form of a thin-walled, lace-like, cylindrical tubular structure having a multiplicity of circumferential sets of strut members, each circumferential sets of strut members comprising: a series of alternating straight segments and arcuately contoured crowns defining an interior surface and an exterior surface; each circumferential set of strut members being formed of an undulating array of individual strut elements, each of said strut elements having an arcuately contoured crown connected to a next succeeding strut element by a straight segment, alternating ones of each of the strut elements being connected to an adjacent circumferential set of strut members by a set of helical connectors that are connected to every other arcuately contoured crown of each of said strut members, each of the arcuately contoured crowns having a tapered width with the strut width at an apex of each crown being greater than the strut width at the ends of each crown defined by where the crown attaches to its adjacent straight segments, each crown having a arcuately contoured interior surface, the sets of helical connectors having slopes which are either positive or negative and the circumferential extent for each helical connector being less than 90 degrees, said interior surface of a crown connected to a helical connector defining a radius of curvature which is different than a radius of curvature of a corresponding interior surface of a crown which is not connected to a helical connector.