Investigation of the dynamic diameter deformation of vascular stents during fatigue testing with radial loading

Abstract

Endovascular stents are exposed to cyclic loads resulting from daily activity and pulsatile arterial blood pressure. DIN EN ISO 25539-2 and FDA guideline 1545 recommend durability testing, exposing stents to physiological cyclic loads for a 10 year equivalent. For accelerated testing, the simulated deformation has to be comparable to physiological in-vivo deformation. A new test setup is presented to determine diameter deformation of vascular stents during fatigue testing with radial loading.

Keywords

• durability/ fatigue testing
• vascular stents
• radial deformation
• pulsatile radial deformation