Mechanical behavior and in vivo properties of newly designed bare metal stent for enhanced flexibility

In this study, our own stent designed by Chonnam National University Hospital (designated as CNUH stent) which is considered an elastic behavior as second trial was subjected to mechanical performance tests and in vivo histological analysis. Four commercialized stents (PROMUS Element (TM), Cypher (R), Resolute Integrity, Xience PRIME) stents were employed as control. In the flat plate and compression test for measuring radial force, the lowest (2.40 +/- 0.27 N) and moderate (31.27 +/- 4.84 N) performance was shown in CNUH stent compared to others. On the other hand, In the 3-point bending test for measuring flexibility, CNUH stent showed the greatest flexibility (0.46 +/- 0.08 N) among competitors (range between 0.66 +/- 0.03 in Cypher (R) and 1.14 +/- 0.04 Resolute Integrity), In both foreshortening and recoil test, CNUH stent showed reasonable result (2.13 +/- 0.15% and 3.29 +/- 0.41%, respectively). However, histological analysis showed that CNUH stent has any significant difference to Coroflex (R) Blue BMS on various parameters. Although the radial force of CNUH stent was slightly lower than that of other products, it showed the greatest performance in its flexibility. It can be utilized for developing drug-eluting stent as a basic structure. (C) 2014 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.