US Patent 9561121 Devices and methods for assisting medical treatments

An intravascular device (100) includes an elongated shaft (3) extending in an axial direction and an expandable braided arrangement (110) of a plurality of filaments. The braided arrangement has a proximal end, a distal end (1), and an intermediate region therebetween. The intravascular device can include an endpiece (112-1) located proximate an intersection of the elongated shaft and the braided arrangement. The endpiece can be configured to orient the filaments in a substantially single file continuum. At a junction with the endpiece, the filaments can initially extend in a substantially parallel, non-crossing manner, and as the filaments extend toward the intermediate region, the initially extending non-crossing filaments can cross each other.