Patent ID: 8211162

Claim:
A stent comprising: a plurality of longitudinally adjacent bands, the longitudinally adjacent bands being connected by a plurality of connectors, each band comprising a plurality of interconnected struts, each strut having a strut width, each strut further having opposing strut end regions and a strut medial region, the width of at least a portion of a strut end region being greater than the width of at least a portion of the strut medial region, within a band each strut end region being connected to an adjacent strut end region at a turn, each turn having a turn width, each connector having a connector width, each connector further having a first connector end region, a second connector end region and a connector medial region therebetween, the width of at least a portion of at least one of the first connector end region and second connector end region being greater than the width of at least a portion of the connector medial region, the first connector end region engaged to one turn of a first band and the second connector end region engaged to one turn of a second longitudinally adjacent band, the first and second bands having connected turns and unconnected turns, each connected turn having a greater width than the width of each unconnected turn.