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THE MAGENTA MEDICAL ELEVATE

A Percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Device (pLVAD)

Thirty years after I designed a flow visualization system for Ken Butler’s Nimbus AxiPump in 1991 ( click here to see my work with the great rocket engineer Kenneth Clark Butler ), I designed a flow visualization system for a highly advanced version of Ken’s Nimbus AxiPump: The Elevate™ pLVAD (percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Device). The Elevate pLVAD is being developed by Magenta Medical of Kadima, Israel.

The Elevate pLVAD is the smallest artificial heart pump in the world.   It is a low-profile, high-flow arterial pump intended for temporary support of patients undergoing high-risk coronary interventions and for the treatment of patients admitted with cardiogenic shock.

Like the original Nimbus AxiPump, the Elevate pLVAD shrivels for insertion to fit through a vein.   When in the left ventricle, the pLVAD expands into a microturbine pump spinning at 24,000 RPM.  

In May of 2023, Magenta Medical received $55 million dollars in private-sector funding to advance the clinical programs of the Elevate LVAD in the United States towards FDA approval.

In March of 2025, clinical trials of the Elevate pLVAD is now began in patients. Here’s a link to a March 2025 article “Magenta Medical: The Beginning of a New Era in Protected PCI?” in the peer-reviewed Journal of Artificial Organs

THE MICROTURBINE
IN THE HATTLER RESPIRATORY ASSIST CATHETER

Click to watch video