Hypertensive Retinopathy

Hypertension (HT) affects several systems such as the cardiovascular, renal, cerebrovascular and retina. Fundus changes caused by HT include arteriolar narrowing, arteriovenous nicking, cotton-wool spots, intraretinal hemorrhage, and papilledema. These changes can be observed using various methods, including fundus examination, optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). OCTA is fast, quantitative, non-invasive and easy to perform for examining hypertensive changes. Hypertensive changes can be grouped in hypertensive retinopathy (HR), hypertensive choroidopathy and hypertensive optic neuropathy. HR acts as a predictor of systemic morbidity and mortality due to target-organ damage. Treatment of HR is mainly medical and should include evaluation of secondary causes.