Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

Sphygmomanometer (blood pressure gauge) — Scipione Riva-Rocci

1896 AD · Transmission: Silenced
MedicineInstrumentItalian

Scipione Riva-Rocci publishes in 1896 in the Gazzetta Medica di Torino the design of the inflatable-cuff sphygmomanometer: a cuff that compresses the brachial artery and a mercury manometer that measures systolic pressure. It is the first practical, reproducible device for measuring blood pressure in clinical practice. Harvey Cushing, an American neurosurgeon, observed the instrument during a visit to Pavia in 1901 and introduced it to the US and the Anglophone world without consistently citing Riva-Rocci, spreading the instrument under the generic name "blood pressure cuff." Hypertension — diagnosed today in more than 1.2 billion people — could not be monitored without Riva-Rocci's principle.

InstitutionUniversity of Turin / Varese Hospital
Historical regionItaly
Primary sourceRiva-Rocci, S. — "Un sfigmomanometro nuovo" (Gazzetta Medica di Torino, 1896)
Secondary sourceBritannica — sphygmomanometer; Comroe, J.H. — "Exploring the Heart" (1983) — chapter on Riva-Rocci and Cushing
Original languageItalian
View this entry in the interactive atlas →