Patent ID: 8062347

Claim:
A stent implantable within a body vessel of a human subject and having a cell structure forming an endoprosthesis, the cell structure comprising: a plurality of substantially parallelogrammic body cells, wherein each body cell is defined by a pair of parallel long body cell struts intersecting a pair of parallel short body cell struts, said body cells having a body cell elongation ratio of long body cell strut length to short body cell strut length; a plurality of substantially parallelogrammic flare cells, wherein each flare cell is defined by a pair of parallel long flare cell struts intersecting a pair of parallel short flare cell struts, said flare cells having an elongation ratio of long flare cell strut length to short flare cell strut length, and wherein said flare cell elongation ratio is at least approximately 20% greater than said body cell elongation ratio; a plurality of connecting cells, wherein each connecting cell is defined by two pairs of parallel and intersecting connecting cell struts, said struts of the connecting cells have a connecting cell elongation ratio wherein said flare cell elongation ratio is at least approximately 20% greater than said connecting cell elongation ratio, and selected connecting cells are adjacent to at least one body cell and at least one flare cell; at least a substantial portion of each flare cell extends axially beyond all of the other cells of the endoprosthesis cell structure such that the entire length of one of said short flare cell struts and a substantial portion of each of said pair of long flare cell struts extend axially beyond all of said other cells; and the flare cells are spaced apart radially with respect to each other to define free space whereby the first long flare cell strut of one of the flare cells is unconnected to the second long flare cell strut of the adjacent flare cell wherein all of said connecting cell struts, short body cell struts, long body cell struts, short flare cell struts, and long flare cell struts are inclined with respect to a longitudinal length of the stent.