The makers of the Jarvik 2000 artificial heart-technically a left ventricular assist device-are now getting a manufacturing assist from the Sheffield Discovery II Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). Robert Jarvik, M.D., the inventor of the Jarvik 2000 device, oversees development of the artificial heart at Jarvik Heart Inc. (New York City). The Discovery II, manufactured by Sheffield Automation (Fond du Lac, WI), is an automated three-dimensional measurement device for high-precision manufactured parts.
The Jarvik 2000, essentially a miniature pump, has already been implanted in more than 40 patients in the United States and Europe. It is intended to be a complement to the heart's function, rather than be a complete heart replacement. Implanted inside the left ventricle, the device pumps up to six liters of oxygenated blood a minute through the heart, in cooperation with the heart beat. In U.S. clinical trials, the Jarvik 2000 has been used as a bridge-to-transplant device, helping ill patients' hearts function until a donor heart is found. In Europe, the device has also been implanted as a lifetime-use device for candidates unsuitable for heart transplants. The first patient to receive one for this purpose is still surviving after more than two years on the device. According to Dr. Jarvik, the device is not solely intended to be a bridge-to-transplant, as it has been used thus far in the United States, but a permanent device that can help rehabilitate patients with severe congestive heart failure to a normal lifestyle.