5/1/2021 30 Years/30 Devices : 1979 : The 1980s : The 1990s : The 2000s : Older

Impella 2.5 Circulatory Support System 2008

The Impella 2.5 is a minimally invasive, percutaneous cardiac assist device that
allows the heart muscle to rest and recover. Impella is designed to actively unload
the le ventricle, reduce heart muscle workload and oxygen consumption, and
increase cardiac output and coronary and end-organ perfusion. Impella received FDA
510(k) clearance in June 2008 and has been used to treat heart attack patients,
patients undergoing high-risk angioplasty, peripartum cardiomyopathy, and viral Photo courtesy of
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myocarditis. It is ∕100 the size of the heart. The device is approved in more than 40 ABIOMED
countries, has been used to treat more than 1700 patients worldwide, and has been the subject of more
than 50 peer-reviewed publications. The device was the recipient of a 2007 Medical Design Excellence
Award.

Many key technologies got their start before MD&DI's inception and before current regulations. Here are
a few that have made a significant contribution to the way medicine is practiced.

Vena Cava Filter 1973

Unique in healthcare disciplines is the fact that devices o en draw inspiration from
the outside world to solve medical problems. In oil pipelines, a cone-shaped filter
traps sludge and debris. The geometry of the cone allows oil to continue flowing
around its edges while concentrating the sludge in the center, whereas a flat screen,
with sludge spread across it, could completely clog the pipeline. The vena cava filter
is the same basic shape as that used in oil refining and is used to prevent life-
threatening pulmonary embolisms.

Computed Tomography Scanner 1972

Photo courtesy of
BOSTON Since its introduction in the 1970s, computed tomography (CT)
SCIENTIFIC CORP. has become an important tool in medical imaging. It is the gold
standard in the diagnosis of a number of di erent disease entities.
CT produces data that are manipulated through a process known as windowing. It
demonstrates bodily structures based on their ability to block the x-ray beam. Photo courtesy of
Although historically the images were in the axial or transverse plane, orthogonal to SIEMENS
the long axis of the body, modern scanners allow this volume of data to be
reformatted in various planes or even as 3-D representations. The first commercially viable CT scanner
was invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield in Hayes, UK, at EMI Central Research Laboratories. Hounsfield
conceived his idea in 1967, and it was publicly announced in 1972. Allan McLeod Cormack of Tu s
University in Massachusetts independently invented a similar process, and both Hounsfield and
Cormack shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in medicine. The original prototype took 160 parallel readings
through 180 angles, each 1˚ apart, with each scan taking about five minutes. The images from these
scans took 2.5 hours to be processed by algebraic reconstruction techniques on a large computer.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging 1977

The first magnetic resonance (MR) image was published in 1973 and the first study performed on a
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