A method to evaluate the elastic behavior of vascular stents

PURPOSE: To develop a simple method for determining the elastic behavior of vascular stents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An experimental apparatus was constructed to determine the elastic behavior of four different vascular stents. Each stent was expanded within an artificial compliant vessel and was subjected to an increasing external pressure. The cross-sectional area of each stent was recorded at incremental changes in pressure. Compliance was estimated from the slope of a linear regression analysis fit to the pressure-area data in the elastic range of deformation. RESULTS: The self-expandable stents were the most compliant, and balloon-expandable stents exhibited the least compliance. The balloon-expandable stents initially deformed in an elastic manner and then yielded irrecoverably at higher pressures. CONCLUSION: A simple method has been devised that allows the elastic behavior of stents to be assessed, Quantification of stent compliance with this method is important as a predictor of stent resistance to compression in vivo.