Marian Sninčák
This contribution deals with several clinical cardiovascular complications present in arterial hypertension such as haemodynamic changes with arterial hypertension in relation with age; and it emphasizes significance of searching for subclinical target organ damage as well as assessment of overall cardiovascular risk in patients with essential arterial hypertension. It also focuses on development and clinical consequences of heart damage (especially in ischemic heart disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, arrhythmias, systolic and diastolic heart failure) present in arterial hypertension with the stress on possibilities for synchronical detection of pre-clinical and obvious signs of arterial system damage, relevance of which is even highlighted by new ESH/ESC 2007 guidelines. However, we often, especially in this field, underestimate significance of these markers despite the fact that they are associated with remarkable worsening of long-term prognosis. Accessibility of some methods in our routine clinical practice has so far been quite difficult, though.