| abstract |
The stent has a plurality of bridge elements (8)nhaving a U-shaped portion between first and secondnconnector arms, the first connector arm of one bridgenelement being connected between a first peak and anfirst valley of the first segment (2) and the secondnconnector arm being connected between a first peak andna first valley of the second segment (2) in a mannernsuch that the U-shaped portion extends in the directionnof the first peak of the first segment and the firstnvalley of the second segment. The segments (2) andnbridge elements (8) are configured such that whenncompression, flexure, and torsion forces are applied tonthe stent they generate first maximum stress regions,nsecond maximum stress regions and third maximum stressnregions which do not overlap. This is achieved bynmanufacturing the stent for starting from a tubularnblank including opposed surfaces (51, 53) separated byna non-uniform wall thickness (55) providing differentnthicknesses at different parting of the stent. |