Review: Pulse pressure, arterial stiffness and wave reflections (augmentation index) as cardiovascular risk factors in hypertension

For many years, the cyclic blood pressure (BP) curve was described exclusively from two specific points of this curve, the highest, called systolic blood pressure, and the lowest, called diastolic blood pressure, both dominating the basis of cardiovascular (CV) hypertensive epidemiology. Nowadays, it is largely admitted that the BP curve should be characterized from pulsatile arterial hemodynamics, thus leading to the definition of novel indices in CV epidemiology. The present chapter details these new aspects.