IMPLANTABLE EXPANDABLE MEDICAL DEVICES HAVING REGIONS OF DIFFERENTIAL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND METHODS OF MAKING SAME

摘要

An implantable expandable medical device (10) in which selected regions of the device (10) are in a martensite phase and selected regions are in an austenite phase. The martensitic regions exhibit pseudoplastic behavior in vivo and may be deformed without recover under in vivo body conditions. In contrast the austenitic regions exhibit superelastic behavior in vivo and will recover their pre-programmed configuration upon deformation or release of an applied strain.