Material Design and Analysis of Coronary Artery Stents

Stent is a tiny structure made with either ceramic coating and/or bare metal. Being approximately 1 similar to 2 mm in diameter, it consists of holes, slots, or void space and is designed to cover entire medical lesions. Stent implantation into patients' arteries has been practiced for a little more than a decade in order to widen the blocked artery. The adoption of the stent has significantly improved the efficacy when compared with the previous medical practice by balloon angioplasty alone. Yet better biomedical performance of the stent is being demanded in order to eliminate the still existing problem of artery restenosis, which means the artery becomes narrowed again. Recent literature survey shows researches on ceramic coatings onto the stent surface, or material design to improve the mechanical response of the stent. This study focuses more on the material design and mechanical analysis. The results showed that the void configuration within the stent affects the mechanical response significantly. The rectangular shape was found to yield expansion at a relatively lower pressure than the elliptical slot for a slotted tube stent. The present results, when combined with research on coating at the stent surface, may provide stents with improved bio-medical performance.