[The intervention trial in the evaluation of antihypertensive therapy].

Several epidemiological studies carried out over the past 30 years have unequivocally shown that hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the incidence of cerebral, coronary, and peripheral artery disease being progressively higher as blood pressure values become more and more elevated. Interventional clinical trials have also shown that antihypertensive treatment is able, by decreasing high blood pressure values, to reduce the cardiovascular risk profile of the hypertensive patient, although not to normalize it. Furthermore, antihypertensive treatment has been demonstrated to be more effective in protecting against stroke and congestive heart failure than against coronary artery disease. This paper will review the results of the various interventional trials carried out in hypertensive states of different clinical severity and in isolated systolic hypertension of the elderly. It will also briefly discuss the peculiar features of the ongoing interventional clinical trials, whose results will allow clarification of important and still unsolved issues concerning antihypertensive therapy.