Patent ID: 7896898

Claim:
A blood clot filter, comprising: an apical head defining a central longitudinal axis; and a plurality of elongated filter legs each having a proximal section and a distal section, each of said plurality of elongated filter legs formed at least in part of a shape-memory material actuatable between three mutually exclusive configurations: a radially collapsed configuration, a centering configuration, and a filtering configuration; wherein the centering configuration of said plurality of elongated filter legs includes a bend region in the proximal section forming a pad configured to abut a vessel interior wall to center the filter when placed within a blood vessel; wherein each of the bend regions of each of the elongated filter legs extends radially outward from the central longitudinal axis at equidistant intervals; wherein the apical head is coupled to the proximal section of each of said plurality of elongated filter legs; wherein each filter leg is configured to avoid contact with the vessel wall in the proximal section of the filter leg in the filtering configuration.