Advanced Cardiovascular Systems of Santa Clara, Calif., was granted a US Patent (8,303,642) on November 6, 2012 for Metal Injection Moulded (MIM) stent tubing having drug eluting capabilities. The intravascular MIM stents incorporate expandable ring elements and connectors in longitudinal/circumferential channels, which are coated using a polymer-plus-drug coating or which are loaded with microreservoirs of a drug, such as an anti-cancer drug to act as a functional drug delivery vehicle.

The MIM stent in-situ in the blood vessel, with inset detail, as shown in the video animation “Drug Eluting Stent”

Powders used to produce the MIM stents are cited as stainless steel, nitinol, and cobalt-chromium, and to aid in stent visibility the powder may include an element or alloy sufficiently radiopaque for x-ray imaging such as during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Advanced Cardiovascular Systems shows a video of the functioning of such a MIM drug eluting stent on its website where the MIM stent tube is inserted into a blood vessel to restore blood flow to the heart. The stent tube eventually becomes part of the blood vessel through the overgrowth of the MIM tube with cells.