Abstract
It has long been hypothesized that the peripheral microcirculation plays a critical role in hypertension pathophysiology.1,2 In its initial stages, elevated blood pressure (BP) elicits an autoregulatory process that results in an increased arteriolar tone, narrowing of precapillary arterioles, and an increase in peripheral vascular resistance. This process, in turn, augments additional BP elevation, creating a vicious cycle that is well known to hypertension researchers. However, scientific progress in this area has been partly limited by difficulties in evaluating the human peripheral microcirculation in vivo. In the last few years, advances in retinal photography and computing technologies have made feasible objective measurement of small vessel size from digital retinal images.3 Several large, population-based studies have applied these new techniques to quantitatively measure retinal vessel diameters and have documented a consistent gradient …
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