By 1905, Nicolai Korotkoff further advanced Riva-Rocci’s ideas. In 1898 Korotkoff obtained his medical degree from the University of Moscow and pursued a career in vascular surgery. As a surgeon, he often used a stethoscope to differentiate between a solid mass and arterial aneurysm. He was therefore concerned with sounds made by arteries.
His main conclusions were derived from the simple observation that a perfectly constricted artery under normal conditions does not emit any sounds. Thus, he proposed the sound method for measuring blood pressure on humans. He used the Riva-Rocci sleeve on the middle third of the arm. At first he observed no sounds, but as the mercury in the manometer dropped to a certain height the first short faint tones appeared. He called these tones the maximum blood pressure. When all sounds disap¬peared, the manometer reading reflected the minimum blood pressure. The accuracy of Korotkoff’s ‘‘sound method’’ has stood the test of time. It is presently used worldwide with acceptable clinical accuracy; nothing has changed except for a varied cuff size relative to the arm width.

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