Patent ID: 8066764

Claim:
A method for providing a stent suitable for insertion and expansion into a vasculature to support an adjacent vasculature region, comprising the steps of: a) providing a plurality of wires forming an elongated and selectively expandable and constrictable hollow tube, each wire providing a substrate having a cross-section comprising an outside-facing surface portion and an inside-facing surface portion, wherein in an expanded condition, a lumen formed by the hollow tube has a diameter that is greater than when in the constricted condition such that in the expanded condition at least the outside-facing surface portions of the plurality of substrate wires are subjected to both tension forces (+σe) and compression forces (−σe) within an elastic limit of the wires; b) providing the hollow tube in the expanded condition; c) adhering an intermediate coating to at least some of the outside-facing surface portions of the substrate wires of the expanded hollow tube, the thusly adhered intermediate coating being in a zero stress state within the elastic limits of the wires and comprising a plurality of columnar structures, each of the columns having a sidewall extending between a proximal end adhered to the outside-facing surface portion of the substrate wires and a distal end spaced therefrom with the sidewalls of immediately adjacent columns not contacting each other to thereby provide an area of the substrate wires between adjacent columns that is not contacted by the intermediate coating serving as porosity between the columns; and d) capping the distal end of each of the plurality of columnar structures with a carbon-containing material.