Investigation of corrosion behaviour of magnesium alloy AM60B-F under pseudo-physiological conditions

Endovascular stents have proven effective in treating coronary and peripheral arterial occlusions. All metallic materials currently used to make these devices are considered to be corrosion-resistant, and are therefore implanted on a long-term basis. Complications, however, have often been reported, such as restenosis and thrombosis. To reduce the risk of thrombus formation and restenosis, it would be useful to develop a new family of degradable stents. In fact, in most clinical cases, the occluded artery requires a stent only for a period of up to one year. Interesting candidate materials for manufacture of degradable stents include magnesium alloys, magnesium being an element that is essential to the organism and has a high electronegative potential. Success in using magnesium alloys for making endovascular devices is closely related to the properties of the selected alloy. Ideally, the alloy should degrade slowly, be ductile, be nontoxic, and corrode uniformly. Given these desired properties, we investigated the potential of magnesium alloys as degradable endovascular biomaterials. A test bench was designed and evaluated to reproduce the physiological conditions encountered in coronary arteries.