A History of Blood Pressure Measurement: From Early Concepts to Modern Devices

The theory that blood circulates through the body under pressure has been around for 2,000 years but the first device to measure blood pressure did not debut until 1733, a device that has been improved upon and refined for nearly 200 years.

Stephen Hale's Tube

• Credit for inventing the first blood pressure measurement device goes to British scientist Stephen Hale, who inserted a brass pipe into the artery of a horse, connected it to a glass tube and showed pressure forced blood up into the tube.

The Kymograph

• In 1847, the first recording of human blood pressure was made by German physician Carl Ludwig, who inserted a catheter into a patient's artery and hooked it to an invention called the kymograph, which used a quill attached to an ivory float to sketch blood pressure readings on a rotating drum.

The Sphygmomanometer

• In 1881, Samuel Karl Ritter invented the sphygmomanometer, which used a water filled bag to deaden the arterial pulse in order to record the blood's systolic (higher) pressure.

The Inflatable Cuff

• In 1896, Italian physician Scipione Riva-Rocci introduced the mercury sphygmomanometer, which used an inflatable cuff on the upper arm to nullify the arterial pulse and measure blood pressure, a method that is still used today.

Diastolic Pressure Debuts

• In 1905, Nikolai Korotkoff observed that the arteries made sounds when the inflatable cuff was being tightened and loosened and developed a way to interpret the sounds. He developed the auscultatory method to measure diastolic blood pressure and added the final refinement to measuring blood pressure.