DIASTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURE OR ACTUALLY IT IS BASELINE SYSTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURE?

Abstract

Blood pressure measuring represents a routine investigation in general medicine. Nokolai Korotkoff was only 31 years old when he made a short presentation to the Scientific Meeting of the Military Hospital of the Academy on 5 November 1905 concerning an easy non-invasive method of blood pressure (BP) measurement, entitled ‘Concerning the problems of the methods of blood pressure measurement’. If the pressure in the cuff is relieved, blood starts coming through the compressed arterial segment during systole and causes auscultatory sound and, the first sound, which, in Korotkoff’s opinion, is a measurement of systolic blood pressure. In the same BP measurement, when normal blood flow is fully restored, the auscultatory sounds disappear and, the last sound, which, in Korotkoff’s opinion is a measurement of diastolic blood pressure. Listening to Korotkoff sounds (K-sounds) to determine systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) has been the standard for noninvasive BP measurement in medical practices for nearly 100 years and it is the essential tool used for evaluation and assessment of patients with hypertension and risks of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) by physicians and nurses despite limited understanding of the nature of K-sounds. This article focuses particularly on the cardiovascular biomechanics of the first and last auscultatory sound and suggests two new terminologies; Highest systolic blood pressure and Baseline systolic blood pressure to represent the systolic pressure and diastolic pressure, respectively. Experimenting blood pressures on the basis of these two new suggested terminologies may reveal various additional undiscovered aspects of normal BP and abnormal BP.