Patent ID: 7371250

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 a retrieval catheter having a lumen sized to receive the guidewire; advancing the guidewire through the vessel while the filter is in its collapsed delivery configuration; expanding the filter to its expanded deployed configuration at a location within the vessel distal to the treatment site; introducing the distal end of a treatment catheter into the vessel, the treatment catheter having a lumen sized to receive the guidewire; advancing the treatment catheter over the guidewire to the treatment site; performing a therapeutic treatment at the treatment site with die 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 catheter into the vessel; advancing the retrieval catheter over the guidewire to retrieve the filter; and removing the retrieval catheter, guidewire and filter from the vessel.