Patent ID: 7849860

Claim:
A method for delivering blood from a chamber of the heart to a coronary blood vessel, said method comprising the steps of: a) advancing, into the coronary blood vessel, a catheter having side port and a tissue penetrator that is advancable out of the side port; b) positioning the catheter such that the side port is directed toward the left ventricle; c) advancing a tissue penetrator out of the side port, through myocardium located between the coronary blood vessel and the chamber of the heart, and into the chamber of the heart, thereby creating a passageway that extends from the coronary blood vessel to the left ventricle; d) advancing a guidewire through the passageway; e) advancing a passageway-modifying apparatus over the guidewire; and f) using the passageway-modifying apparatus to modify the passageway in a manner that facilitates bloodflow from the chamber of the heart, through the passageway and into the coronary blood vessel; wherein i) the tissue penetrator has a lumen and, in step d, the guidewire is advanced through the tissue penetrator lumen, ii) after the guidewire has been advanced through the tissue penetrator lumen, the tissue penetrator is withdrawn into the catheter and iii) after the tissue penetrator has been withdrawn into the catheter and prior to performance of step e, the catheter is removed leaving the guidewire within the passageway.