摘要 |
<p>An expandable endovascular medical tubular stent is a supporting device intended to maintain the walls of anatomical body channels or vessels, the stent being expandable within the vessel by an angioplasty balloon associated with a catheter thereby dilating and expanding the lumen of a vessel. The stent comprises an arrangement of a plurality of radially expandable, serpentine members arranged in interconnected rings. Upon inflation of the balloon, the stent expands in both radial and longitudinal directions in relation to the amount of radially- outwardly directed force by the balloon. The stent is designed such that during expansion, local plastic deformation occurs only at the points of inflection distributed throughout the rings. Expansion is limited in proportion to the amount of expansion to ensure the resulting expanded stent is within material fracture limits and that adequate wall supporting structure is provided thereby.</p> |