Profile of endothelial dysfunction in arterial hypertension. Vascular ultrasound assessment

Assessment of endothelial dysfunction in arterial hypertension using brachial ultrasound is a common method. Because of prognostic value of flow mediated dilation, vascular ultrasound is considered the standard noninvasive method. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In our study we assessed 92 hypertensive patients (very carefully selected) in a prospective and long term follow-up manner. We used the technical indications of actual guidelines. RESULTS: We confirmed the importance of a complete and complex assessment of endothelial dysfunction, using different parameters. Our study demonstrated that endothelial dysfunction exists in hypertensives, has a large interindividual variability and can be improved using adequate treatment. We also proposed a new parameter--the velocity ratio, and tested the value of normalized diameter ratio, as a nonconventional variable.