Pathophysiology of cardiovascular structural changes in hypertension.

Hypertrophic adaptation of the left ventricle and blood vessels is a prominent feature of established essential hypertension. Presence of left ventricular hypertrophy in hypertension increases, independently of other risk factors, the risk for a number of the most important cardiovascular hypertensive complications. Available evidence indicates that left ventricular hypertrophy develops in close parallel with the peripheral vascular changes. Structural involvement can be detected already in early phases of borderline hypertension. The pathophysiology of structural changes in hypertension appears to be dependent on a complex interplay between genetic, hemodynamic, and humoral-metabolic factors.