Patent ID: 7540930

Claim:
A method of producing a stent to be implanted in a human body, comprising: forming a base material for said stent having a plurality of annular parts deformable in a direction in which an outer diameter thereof contracts, when a stress is applied thereto and a plurality of connection parts each connecting said adjacent annular parts to each other, with said annular parts arranged in an axial direction of said stent, by partly removing a side surface of a prepared approximately cylindrical pipe, made of a super-elastic metal, having an outer diameter suitable for a portion of the human body in which said stent is implanted; heat-treating a part or an entirety of at least one of said connection parts of said base material for said stent to substantially eliminate super-elasticity of said at least one of said connection parts; and wherein said heat-treating comprises disposing said base material for said stent on a heat sink which has a plurality of concavities, with each annular part of said base material for said stent in contact with an outer surface of said heat sink, and with at least a portion of said at least one of said connection parts disposed over said concavities of said heat sink and not in contact with said outer surface of said heat sink, and energizing said entire base material for said stent so that said base material for said stent self-heats and said annular part in contact with said outer surface of said heat sink radiates heat.