of the shaft between the distal tip 20 and the stop 22 fig2 the stent bed 24 and the stent 50 are coaxial so that the portion of shaft 18 comprising the stent bed 24 is located within the lumen of stent 50 the stent bed 24 makes minimal contact with stent 50 because of the space which exists between the inner shaft 10 and the outer sheath 40 as the stent is subjected to temperatures at the austenite phase transformation it attempts to recover to its programmed shape by moving outwardly in a radial direction within the sheath the outer sheath 40 constrains the stent as will be explained later herein the shaft 10 has a guidewire lumen 28 extending along its length where the guidewire enters through the guidewire hub 5 and exits through its distal tip 20 this construction allows the shaft 10 to receive a guidewire 76 much in the same way that a balloon angioplasty catheter receives a guidewire such guidewires are well known in the art and help to guide catheters and other medical devices through the vasculature of the body sheath 40 is preferably a polymeric catheter and has a proximal end 42 terminating at a luer hub 52 sheath 40 also has a distal end 45 which terminates at the proximal end 34 of distal tip 20 of the shaft 10 when the stent 50 is in an unexpanded position as shown in fig2 as will be explained below the stent is fully deployed when the marker band 46 is proximal to radiopaque.