Patent Document ID: 8311312
Application ID: 12466276
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-based method for inspecting a polymeric stent, comprising: (a) collecting images showing a portion of the polymeric stent; (b) finding a defect in the portion by computer analysis of the collected images; (c) retrieving samples of defects from previously-inspected polymeric stents, wherein the defect samples include unacceptable defects found in polymeric stents that were rejected and acceptable defects found in polymeric stents that were accepted; and (d) comparing the found defect to both the acceptable defects and unacceptable defects including computing at least one number and, based on this comparison, deciding whether to accept, reject or manually inspect the polymeric stent; wherein the comparing step further includes simultaneously comparing several found defects including bending of two or more adjacent struts appearing at different polymeric stent locations and deciding, based on this comparison, whether to accept, reject or manually inspect the polymeric stent; and wherein the bending of two or more adjacent struts includes at least one of a pair of struts being bent so that the two struts touch each other, a pair of struts being bent so that they overlap each other, or two or more struts that extend beyond the abluminal surface of the polymeric stent by a predefined amount.