The objectives of this study are to evaluate presence and role of the following potential mechanisms of hypertensive ACPE: 1. acute myocardial dysfunction (systolic and diastolic); 2. silent transient myocardial ischemia; 3. acute mechanical left ventricular dyssynchrony; 4. dynamic mitral regurgitation; 5. inter-ventricular interaction. Conventional and Tissue Doppler echocardiography will be used to assess cardiac function.