medical diagnostics although technical development and automation of diagnostic methods steadily reduce their importance. During common examination of the blood pressure by auscultation an important part is played by the hearing of the examining person. The objective of the authors was to assess whether and to what extent impaired hearing can cause inaccuracies of blood pressure readings. First the authors assessed the values of acoustic pressure of Korotkoff’s phenomena which develop due to the pressure of the cuff on the artery. They found that their level increases briskly from the first panetration of blood into the artery, it rapidly reaches the maximum, then it declines relatively slowly till it disappears. The maximum sound intensity ocours in the region at about 125 Hz. Based on the assessed facts it may be assumed that in hypacusia of the examiner a greater error arises when taking the diastolic blood pressure reading. This assumption was confirmed by clinical experiments. A person with hypacusia takes higher readings in particular of the diastolic pressure and this may lead to an incorrect diagnosis of hypertension in particular in normotonic subjects. In marked hypacusia the systolic pressure readings assessed by the auscultation method are lower, those of the diastolic pressure are markedly higher.

        Key words: assessment of blood pressure, Korotkoff’s sounds, auscultation method, hypacusia.