Development of a Multi-Axis Peripheral Stent Durability/Fatigue Test Instrument

Structural failures of metallic stents in peripheral arteries such as the superficial femoral artery (SFA) have challenged industry to devise a suitable mechanical durability/fatigue model to simulate the clinical conditions. Previous mechanical durability testing for stents has consisted of pulsatile fatigue of a straight stent in a straight tube. The stents are distended to diametric levels expected in the target native artery and cycled to duplicate 10 years of simulated life. This is at least 380 million cycles. High speed pulsatile fatigue test instruments have been able to reproduce those distentions at test frequencies of 60 Hz resulting in a simulated 10 year life of less than 90 days.