Patent ID: 7367986

Claim:
A method of protecting a patient from embolization during a percutaneous procedure at a site of stenosis within a vessel, comprising: providing a guidewire having proximal and distal ends, a proximal and a distal region, and an expandable filter associated with the distal region, the filter being expandable from a collapsed delivery configuration to an expanded deployed configuration; providing a retrieval catheter having proximal and distal ends and a lumen sized to receive the guidewire; introducing the distal end of the guidewire into the patient's vessel with the filter in the collapsed delivery configuration; advancing the filter downstream of the stenosis, wherein the guidewire and expandable filter cross the stenosis; expanding the expandable filter; advancing a treatment catheter over the guidewire to position the treatment catheter at the site of stenosis within the vessel; urging the stenosis radially outwardly against a wall of the vessel wherein embolic material is generated and captured before the expandable filter is removed from the patient's vessel; removing the treatment catheter from the vessel; after the treatment catheter has been removed introducing the distal end of the retrieval catheter into the vessel; and advancing the retrieval catheter over the guidewire to retrieve the filter.