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(Circulation. 1996;94:116-118.)
© 1996 American Heart Association, Inc.

Articles

90th Anniversary of the Development by Nikolai S. Korotkoff of the Auscultatory Method of Measuring Blood Pressure

Yury L. Shevchenko, MD; Joshua E. Tsitlik, PhD

The Russian Military Medical Academy (Y.L.S.), Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (J.E.T.), New York, NY.

Correspondence to Joshua E. Tsitlik, PhD, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Center for Device Research, Milstein Bldg, Room 7-435, 177 Fort Washington Ave, New York, NY 10032.

Key Words: Cardiovascular News • blood pressure • diastole

	Introduction

 
Every day, all over the world, many thousands of physicians, nurses, and paramedics measure systemic arterial pressure by applying a cuff with an inflatable bladder around the patient's arm and using a stethoscope to listen to the sounds in the brachial artery. Many care providers know that they are listening to "Korotkoff sounds," but very few know that the method was introduced 90 years ago by a Russian doctor and scientist, Nikolai Sergeevich Korotkoff (Fig 1).

View larger version (131K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. Nikolai Sergeevich Korotkoff. (Photograph courtesy of The Russian Military Medical Academy, Saint Petersburg, Russia.)

Indeed, a report on a new method of measurement of arterial pressure¹ was presented on November 8, 1905, at a scientific seminar of the Imperial Military Medical Academy, Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Korotkoff, a young surgeon from the clinic of Prof Sergei P. Fedorov. (The authors found the date of the presentation mentioned in Korotkoff's dissertation.2(p116)) An English translation of the text of Korotkoff's presentation¹ was published by W.H. Lewis, Jr, in 1941.³

In the 90 years since Korotkoff presented the new method to measure the arterial pressure, medical science and medical technology have made big strides. However, because of its simplicity and high degree of accuracy, the method of auscultatory measurement of arterial pressure remains the most acceptable in everyday medical practice. Moreover, this method is one of only a few techniques for clinical examination of patients that has not undergone significant changes since it was introduced.

Very little is known, even in his native Russia, . . . [Full Text of this Article]