[Essential hypertension: Definitions, hemodynamic, clinical and therapeutic review].

Arterial hypertension is à chronic disease that affects more than 25 % of the French adult population. Increased peripheral resistance combined with normal cardiac output is a special feature of arterial hypertension. The increase in the resistance of arterioles remains an important feature of arterial hypertension while the study of the rigidity of large arterials trunks remains poorly explored. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement has been established as one of the major independent predictors of cardiovascular events in arterial hypertension.