ABSTRACT
High blood pressure (hypertension) is a medical condition in which the pressure and force exerted by the blood against the arterial walls are elevated. Hypertension afflicts one in three adults and is the primary or contributing cause of mortality in 410,000 patients in the USA. The primary causes of hypertension include chronic stress, high sodium intake, and renal dysfunction. Hypertension is often associated with co-morbidities and results in vascular dysfunction. Sustained hypertension damages and alters the blood vessels, including cerebral blood vessels. Cerebrovascular change and dysfunction due to hypertension is a major contributor of dementia, strokes, cognitive impairment, brain lesions, Alzheimer's disease, and ischemic cerebral injury. Invasive and noninvasive techniques exist for measuring elevated blood pressures. Imaging modalities such as MRA have been used for quantifying cerebrovascular structural change related to hypertension noninvasively. This chapter presents hypertension, current diagnostic methods, and overviews current state-of-the-art imaging modalities to quantify hypertension-induced cerebrovascular changes.
