Corrosion testing of stents: a novel fixture to hold entire device in deployed form and finish.
Stainless steel and nickel-titanium alloy stents for cardiac, biliary, and prostatic clinical applications may be susceptible to loss of mechanical integrity/failure due to their small size and unique geometry. Because their corrosion behavior is a critical aspect of their biocompatibility, it is necessary to test such devices for corrosion behavior using a final deployed form and finish condition. Welding wire leads or holding with metallic clips can result in surface variability or damage to the stents. A novel fixture to hold stents for corrosion testing was designed and evaluated in this study. This fixture design minimally influenced the properties of stents, and also facilitated easy removal post-testing for other types of characterization.
Venugopalan
R
R
1075 13(th) Street South, Hoehn Building 370, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-4440, USA. krishna@uab.edu
D000497:Alloys; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003343:Corrosion; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D009532:Nickel; D011199:Potentiometry; D013193:Stainless Steel; D015607:Stents; D013499:Surface Properties; D014025:Titanium
D000497:Alloys; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; C040654:titanium nickelide; D013193:Stainless Steel; D009532:Nickel; D014025:Titanium