Abstract: An implant delivery device preferably includes a first shaft having a proximal portion and a distal portion. The first shaft includes an outer surface and an inner surface defining a first lumen along a longitudinal axis. The distal portion includes a tip defining a taper in the distal direction toward the longitudinal axis and terminating at a distal opening. The device also includes a second shaft having a proximal portion and a distal portion and an inner surface defining a second lumen therebetween having a first cross-section. The second shaft is disposed within the first lumen such that the second lumen is generally coaxial with the first lumen to define a chamber. The distal portion of the second shaft terminates in a port having an opening in communication with the distal opening of the first shaft. The port preferably includes a second cross-section greater than the first cross-section.

Abstract: The stent matrix of a stent incorporates joints that permit stress-free relative movement of first and second structural portions (10, 12) of the matrix as the facing surfaces of the joint between the structural portions slide relative to one another. The joints are formed in the thickness of an annular wall of the stent, and are created by a computer-controlled laser beam cutting procedure.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for linking nucleic acid and/or glycosaminoglycan or glycosaminoglycan mimetics to a polar/hydrophilic material, characterized by contacting a nucleic acid and/or glycosaminoglycan and a polar/hydrophilic material with each other in the presence of a solution being 20 to 100 percent saturated with a non-chaotropic salt and removing said solution from the nucleic acid and/or glycosaminoglycan—polar/hydrophilic material.

Abstract: The invention relates to polymer-coated stents, processes for their production and their use for restenosis prevention.

Abstract: A laser cut stent for transluminal delivery has windows in its cylindrical wall, the windows giving the stent enhanced flexibility during delivery along said lumen. A method of making such a stent involves removing from the wall of a tube enough material to leave the tube wall penetrated in a multiplicity of separate cut lines, in a pattern which permits the tube to expand. The tube is then expanded and then a plurality of tube wall scrap portions are removed from the tube wall between adjacent cut lines, thereby to introduce a plurality of spacings between adjacent stenting zones of the tube wall surface, these remaining after compression of the tube to a configuration to allow it to be advanced along a tortuous bodily lumen. Advantageously, the material of the tube is a shape memory alloy and the tube is for a self-expanding stent.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a stent delivery system comprising a catheter tube defining for a self-expanding stent a bed having a length direction in line with the catheter length, a radially outward facing stent-receiving surface, a distal end at or near the distal end of the catheter and a proximal end spaced proximally from the distal end; an outer catheter tube to circumferentially surround the bed; and the outer tube being arranged to be withdrawn proximally to release the self-expanding stent radially outwardly from the bed; and further comprising: on the stent receiving bed surface, immediately distal of the proximal end of the bed, a first pinch zone; on the outer tube, at or near a distal end thereof, and on its radially inwardly facing surface, a second pinch zone; the first and second pinch zones facing each other when the distal end of the outer tube is not quite fully withdrawn proximally, relative to the bed; the facing of the opposed first and second pinch zones defining a reduced-width an

Abstract: For the better anchoring of a stent in its use area within a vessel, in the case of a stent expandable from a radially contracted introduction state into a radially expanded position state and having a body with material areas in the form of ribs and gaps in the form of free spaces between the ribs, in the radially expanded state at least one front end of the stent has a greater radial extension than the remaining main stent body with the material areas of the body being relatively thin and without material crossing points as in knitted and braided structures.

Abstract: A stent, which has an easier and better bendability and higher flexibility than known stents, has several meander paths (2,2a,2b,2c) successively arranged in the axial direction (A) and extending over its circumference (U), and between axially facing areas (3,3a,3'a,3b), interconnected by connecting areas (4,4a,4b,4c), of the meander paths (2,2a,2b,2c) in the circumferential direction (U) there are at least two facing, non-interconnected areas (3,3a,3'a,3b) of each meander path (2,2a,2b,2c)

Abstract: For the better anchoring of a stent in its use area within a vessel, in the case of a stent expandable from a radially contracted introduction state into a radially expanded position state, in the radially expanded state at least one front end of the stent has a greater diameter than the remaining main stent body with ribs of the front end being longer than those in the main stent body.