the drive and control unit 10 of the blood pump 1 the image processing and playback facility 15 and the position identification unit 18 are attached to a common data bus 21 for data exchange purposes data storage units for image data obtained using the imaging sensor 11 supply and actuating units for the imaging sensor 11 and a user interface with software menus for operating the blood pump 1 the imaging sensor 11 or to assist with diagnosis can also be attached to the data bus 21 fig3 shows a variant of the blood pump 1 in which only one drive shaft 7 is present being used both to drive the pump wheel 6 and also to rotate the imaging sensor 11 since the rotational speed of the drive shaft 7 is too high to rotate the imaging sensor 11 a microtransmission not shown in fig3 is present which can be used to supply an appropriate rotational speed to rotate the imaging sensor 11 fig4 11 show various imaging sensors 11 which can be used in the blood pump 1 fig4 shows a cmos based optical sensor a light source 48 in this instance a high performance micro led illuminates.