The New Era of Retinal Imaging in Hypertensive Patients

Structural and functional alterations in the microcirculation by systemic hypertension can cause significant organ damage at the eye, heart, brain, and kidneys. As the retina is the only tissue in the body that allows direct imaging of small vessels, the relationship of hypertensive retinopathy signs with development of disease states in other organs have been extensively studied; large-scale epidemiological studies using fundus photography and advanced semi-automated analysis software have reported the association of retinopathy signs with hypertensive end-organ damage includes the following: stroke, dementia, and coronary heart disease. Although yielding much useful information, the vessels assessed from fundus photographs remain ...
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