Medical device that includes a refractory metal alloy

A medical device for implantation into a body passageway;

• said medical device includes an expandable metal frame that is configured to expand in the body passageway when said medical device is positioned in a treatment site in the body passageway;
• at least 50 wt. % of said expandable metal frame is formed of a refractory metal alloy;
• said refractory metal alloy is not a self-expanding metal alloy;
• said expandable metal frame of said medical device includes a plurality of struts and strut joints;
• said expandable metal frame includes two or more features selected from the group consisting of a) a recoil percentage of less than 5% when said expandable metal frame is crimped to a crimped state, b) a recoil percentage of less than 5% when said expandable metal frame is expanded from a crimped state, and c) a longitudinal foreshortening percentage of less than 20% when said expandable metal frame is expanded from a crimped state;
• said refractory metal alloy has a density of at least 11 gm/cc;
• said refractory metal alloy includes at least 50 wt. % of a total content of refractory metal and 0-40 of additive metal;
• said refractory metal includes alloy includes one or more of molybdenum, niobium, rhenium, tantalum, and/or tungsten;
• said refractory metal alloy includes no less than 30 wt. % rhenium and one or both of niobium and tantalum;
• said additive metal includes one or more of calcium, carbon, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, hafnium, iridium, iron, lanthanum, magnesium, manganese, nickel, osmium, platinum, rare earth metals, rhodium, ruthenium, silver, technetium, titanium, vanadium, yttrium, zinc, and/or zirconium;
• said refractory metal alloy includes no more than 2 wt. % of a combination of a) metals other than sad refractory metal and additive metal, b) carbon, c) oxygen and d) nitrogen.

A medical device for implantation into a body passageway;

• said medical device is an expandable stent, an expandable valve, an expandable graph, an expandable sheath or an expandable frame for a prosthetic heart valve;
• at least 50 wt. % of said medical device is formed of a refractory metal alloy;
• said refractory metal alloy is not a self-expanding metal alloy;
• said medical device includes an expandable metal frame formed of a plurality of struts and strut joints;
• said expandable metal frame includes two or more features selected from the group consisting of a) a recoil percentage of less than 5% when said expandable metal frame is crimped to a crimped state, b) a recoil percentage of less than 5% when said expandable metal frame is expanded from a crimped state, and c) a longitudinal foreshortening percentage of less than 20% when said expandable metal frame is expanded from a crimped state;
• said refractory metal alloy has a density of at least 11 gm/cc;
• said refractory metal alloy includes at least 50 wt. % of a total content of refractory metal and 0-40 of additive metal;
• said refractory metal includes alloy includes one or more of molybdenum, niobium, rhenium, tantalum, and/or tungsten;
• said refractory metal alloy includes no less than 30 wt. % rhenium and one or both of niobium and tantalum;
• wherein said refractory metal alloy includes 1-32 wt. % niobium and/or 0.1-32 wt. % tantalum;
• said additive metal includes one or more of calcium, carbon, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, hafnium, iridium, iron, lanthanum, magnesium, manganese, nickel, osmium, platinum, rare earth metals, rhodium, ruthenium, silver, technetium, titanium, vanadium, yttrium, zinc, and/or zirconium;
• said refractory metal alloy includes no more than 2 wt. % of a combination of a) metals other than sad refractory metal and additive metal, b) carbon, c) oxygen and d) nitrogen.