Patent ID: 7172621

Claim:
A method of treating vascular disease, comprising: positioning guiding catheter; deploying a stent within a blood vessel of a patient; advance guiding catheter within the lumen of the deployed stent; positioning an embolic protection device within a lumen of the deployed stent; deploying the embolic protection device within the lumen of the deployed stent; introducing a dilatation catheter into the lumen of the deployed stent; inflating a dilatation balloon mounted on the dilatation catheter to dilate a portion of the stent at a location proximally from the deployed embolic protection device; deflating the dilatation balloon and withdrawing the dilatation catheter from the lumen of the stent; aspirating blood and potential emboli through a lumen of an aspiration catheter placed within the lumen of the deployed stent; undeploying the embolic protection device and withdrawing the embolic protection device and the aspiration catheter from the lumen of the stent.