Future Balloon-Expandable Stents: High or Low-Strength Materials?

Purpose: Recent progress in material science allows researchers to use novel materials with enhanced capabilities like optimum biodegradability, higher strength, and flexibility in the design of coronary stents. Considering the wide range of mechanical properties of existing and newfangled materials, finding the influence of variations in mechanical properties of stent materials is critical for developing a practical design.

Methods: The sensitivity of stent functional characteristics to variations in its material plastic properties is obtained through FEM modeling.