Cardiac imaging in patients with arterial hypertension.

Hypertension is considered the major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Conventional echocardiography is the most common and used imaging technique and can detect anatomical and functional changes easily in a real-time, quick, noninvasive and relatively inexpensive manner. Other imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging and 3-D echocardiography gained an increasing role in selected patients, as well as the study of arterial stiffness, also using ultrasonographic echo-tracking methods. This review analyzes the role of echocardiography and other imaging techniques in the evaluation of the cardiovascular effects of hypertension.