Patent ID: 7722658

Claim:
A stent for holding open a blood vessel formed of a structure consisting essentially of a plurality of triangular cells, each triangular cell comprising: a first loop containing section, the first loop containing section arranged generally in the circumferential direction, a second loop containing section, the second loop containing section arranged generally in the circumferential direction and joined to the first loop containing section at a first junction; and a third loop containing section joined to the first loop containing section at a second junction and joined to the second loop containing section at a third junction; wherein a plurality of first loop containing sections form a first band of loops which repeat at a first frequency and a plurality of second and third loop containing sections form a second band of loops which repeat at a second frequency higher than said first frequency, said first and second bands alternating for at least three consecutive repetitions along the longitudinal axis of the stent wherein each cell consists essentially of two loops at the first frequency and three loops at the second frequency, each of said loops opening toward the inside of the cell.