Patent ID: 7169174

Claim:
A stent in the form of a thin-walled, lace-like, cylindrical tube with a longitudinal axis, the stent comprising: a multiplicity of interior circumferential sets of strut members having a length (L 3 ) and one end circumferential set of strut members having a length (L 4 ) at each of the two longitudinal ends of the stent; each interior circumferential set of strut members including at least one connected strut member consisting of a long diagonal section having a longitudinal length (L 1 ) fixedly attached along a connecting line to a connected curved section, each connected curved section being joined by means of a longitudinal connecting link to one curved section of an adjacent circumferential set of strut members; each interior set of strut members also including at least one unconnected strut member consisting of a short diagonal section having a longitudinal length (L 2 ) fixedly joined to an unconnected curved section; the stent being further characterized by having the length L 1 of the long diagonal section being longer than the length L 2 of the short diagonal section, (L 1 >L 2 U); and the length L 3 is not equal to the length L 4 .