STENT GRAFT HAVING A MARKER AND A REINFORCING AND MARKER RING

A reinforcing and marker ring for a stent graft is disclosed. The reinforcing and marker ring comprises a plurality of turns of a substantially inextensible resilient wire in a circular shape and terminal ends at each end of the wire. The terminal ends each comprise a loop, each loop attachable to a stent graft having an opening or a fenestration so as to substantially lock a peripheral length of the circular shape. A marker winding is wound helically around the reinforcing wire, the marker winding being viewable on an image display system employing electromagnetic radiation so as to indicate the location of a periphery of the fenestration. The circular shape of the resilient wire, with the marker winding wound around it, is collapsible under radial pressure to form a squashed circular shape for loading into a delivery device, the squashed circular shape self-expandable back to a substantially circular shape upon release from the delivery device. The marker winding defines a curved passageway around the resilient wire of the reinforcing ring, the curved passageway having an internal diameter D, wherein the marker winding is helically wound with a pitch providing at least one winding per length D along the reinforcing wire of the reinforcing ring. The marker winding may be a radiopaque gold wire wound around a nitinol reinforcing wire.