Patent ID: 7179285

Claim:
A stent formed into a generally or substantially tubular body comprising: annular units composed of a plurality of cells, said annular units radially expandable outward from inside of the tubular body, wherein the plurality of the cells of each annular unit are connected vertically and arranged surrounding a central axis of the stent; wherein said annular units are disposed along an axial direction of said stent, and adjacent annular units are connected at least at one portion by a connecting part; said connecting part being a generally S-shaped connecting part, said S-shaped connecting part including two or more arcs and a substantially straight line portion between two arcs, each free end of the arcs extending substantially upward or downward as high as about a middle of said straight line portion thereby forming a full fledged S-shaped connecting part, and ends of said connecting part are respectively connected to a left portion and a right portion of cells forming adjacent annular units respectively; each cell being composed of two struts, a first substantially straight strut being disposed in the axial direction as a base strut (BS-strut), and a second curved strut disposed at an acute angle X with respect to the axial direction of the stent as a bending strut (BN-strut), and said acute angle X being substantially maintained between a major or majority part of said first straight strut (BS-strut) and a major or majority part of the second curved strut (BN-strut) thereby the majority part of the base strut (BS-strut) and the majority part of the bending strut (BN-strut) are substantially not in parallel with each other, wherein a substantially straight line portion forming a part of said second curved strut (BN-strut) is connected to the first substantially straight strut (BS-strut) via a bent portion, thereby the stent is configured to be compressed such that said first straight strut composing the base strut remains in the axial direction, and said second curved strut composing the bending strut bends toward the base strut, and said stent being expandable to at least a diameter of 2.5 mm when an angle formed between said first strut and said substantially straight line portion of the second strut is 30°–140°.