The Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure: What's New? What's Different?

Hypertension remains a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the United States. Disturbing trends have been reported recently and include declining rates of successful blood pressure control and increasing rates of stroke, congestive heart failure, and hypertension-associated end-stage renal disease. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the potential benefits of more aggressive blood pressure control using specific antihypertensive agents in patients with both diabetic and nondiabetic renal disease. Additional studies have demonstrated the benefit of treating isolated systolic hypertension in the elderly and the potential for lifestyle modification to lower blood pressure. The Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure has been published recently and should serve as an important resource for busy practitioners caring for hypertensive patients. This article describes the significant additions and revisions that distinguish this Sixth Report from previous editions.