Minimum elastic recoil (ER) has became an essential feature of new coronary
stents when deployed in artheromatous lesions of various morphologies, the
ER of coronary stent might be an important component of 6-month restenosis
rate by minimizing the luminal loss. We evaluated the intrinsic ER of 23 c
oronary stents with a mechanical test bench. The amount of ER for one size
of stent (3.0 mm) was quantified using a 3D optical contactless machine (Sm
artscope MVP, Rochester, NY). The stents were expanded on their own balloon
for the precrimped stents; the uncrimped stents were expended using identi
cal 3.0-mm balloons. Two types of measurements were done without exterior s
tress and with a 0.2-bar exterior stress, directly on the stent at the end
of balloon expansion, immediately after balloon deflation, and then 30 min,
60 min, and 120 min after. ER ranged from 1.54% +/- 0.81% (Bestent BES 15)
to 16.51% +/- 2.89% (Paragon stent) without stress (P < 0.01) and from 2.3
5% +/- 1.14% (Bestent BES 15) to 18.34% +/- 2.41% (Cook GR2) under 0.2-bar
pressure (P < 0.0001). Furthermore, there was a significant reduction betwe
en the mean result of tubular stents (TS) and coil stents (CS). The results
of in vitro mechanical tests may confirm strongly the interest of a minimu
m ER in the prevention of the 6-month restenosis. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.