Patent ID: 7367985

Claim:
A method for filtering emboli from blood flowing through a body vessel during therapeutic treatment at a treatment site in the vessel comprising: providing a guidewire having distal and proximal ends and carrying a filter on a distal portion of the guidewire, the filter being expandable from a collapsed delivery configuration to an expanded deployed configuration; providing an elongate introduction member and an elongate retrieval member, each having distal and proximal ends and a lumen sized to receive the guidewire; introducing the introduction member into the vessel; advancing the guidewire through the vessel while the filter is contained within the lumen of the introduction member in its collapsed delivery configuration; expanding the filter to its expanded deployed configuration at a location within the vessel distal to the treatment site; removing the introduction member from the vessel; after the introduction member has been removed introducing the distal end of a treatment catheter into the vessel; advancing the treatment catheter over the guidewire to the treatment site; performing a therapeutic treatment at the treatment site with the treatment catheter; filtering emboli released into blood during the therapeutic treatment with the filter; removing the treatment catheter from the vessel; after the treatment catheter has been removed introducing the distal end of the retrieval member into the vessel; advancing the retrieval member over the guidewire to retrieve the filter; and removing the retrieval member, guidewire and filter from the vessel.