Patent ID: 8236039

Claim:
A filter for use in a body lumen of a subject, the filter comprising: an elongate filter body having a funnel-shaped filter portion, a plurality of filter elements interconnected so as to form said filter body with a plurality of apertures disposed between and defined by said interconnected filter elements, said substantially funnel-shaped portion being differently configured from a remainder of said elongate filter body and including a plurality of spaced apart, independent radial filter elements and a plurality of circular filter elements, said plurality of spaced apart radial filter elements spiraling from a small end of said substantially funnel-shaped portion to a large end of said substantially funnel-shaped portion, adjacent spaced apart radial filter elements forming a filter aperture extending from said small end to said large end and having an increasing diameter from said small end to said large end, said plurality of circular filter elements being of increasing diameter from said small end to said large end and being perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of said filter body, said plurality of circular filter elements cooperating with said plurality of spaced apart radial filter elements along the lengths of said plurality of spaced apart radial filter elements to form a plurality of reduced filter apertures from said plurality of filter apertures, said reduced filter apertures extending from an external surface to an internal surface of said filter body and being dimensioned so as to inhibit a thrombus of a selected size from passing through said apertures and being dimensioned so as to allow blood components smaller than the selected size to pass through said apertures; and at least one biodegradable wall contact coupled to at least one of said filter elements on said external surface of said filter body, said wall contact having an initial thickness dimension that is substantially orthogonal to central axis of said filter body and that separates said external surface from an inner wall of said body lumen.