Patent ID: 7789904

Claim:
A stent for supporting a vessel comprising: a tubular body having a longitudinal axis, and having proximal and distal ends and a lumen extending longitudinally therebetween, and a wall having areas thereof that define a web structure configured for circumferential expansion from a contracted delivery configuration to an expanded deployed configuration; the web structure comprising a plurality of web patterns that are interconnected with one another at a plurality of interconnection locations, and arranged so that the web patterns are situated side-by-side along the longitudinal length of the tubular body, with each web pattern also extending circumferentially around the wall; at least one of said interconnected web patterns comprising, at least three webs joined end-to-end so as to extend between a pair of interconnection locations with no other interconnection location between the pair of interconnection locations; said three webs that are joined end-to-end being joined by two bends so that the bends permit the three webs to be generally foldable between the pair of interconnection locations when said tubular body is in the contracted delivery configuration, and then unfolded when said tubular body is expanded to the deployed configuration; and said at least three webs each comprising a plurality of web sections, with one of the web sections being angled relative to one other web section when the stent is in the expanded deployed configuration.