Biomarkers in hypertension and their relationship with myocardial target-organ damage.

Essential hypertension is a very common health condition that is associated with an array of long-term end-organ diseases, including premature cardiovascular disease. Currently, there is no effective method to identify high-risk patients who may develop cardiovascular comorbidities in the future. Clinically, it would be beneficial to identify high-risk patients early in the disease process, so they can receive more aggressive blood pressure control and perhaps other specific disease-modifying therapies, thus delaying or avoiding the onset of cardiovascular disease. Cardiac biomarkers may have a unique role in the prognostic evaluation of patients with hypertension as many cardiac biomarker levels become abnormal long before the onset of overt cardiovascular disease. This review will provide an overview of cardiac biomarkers that may be used to predict future cardiovascular disease in patients with hypertension.