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.