| Summary: | The Swedish Council of Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU) published its first report on Moderately Elevated Blood Pressure in 1994. The new 2001-2004 review of the literature includes many new studies. The past ten years have generated fresh data that confirm the value of treating women and the elderly, as well as patients with elevated systolic pressure. The current report is a revised version of the 1994 publication. Each chapter has been updated and expanded upon, while some are new. Chapter 11 describes the project group's metaanalysis of the effect of blood pressure lowering treatment on left ventricular hypertrophy. The compilation of the results of hypertension treatment in various countries is new, as is the section on different blood pressure lowering drugs. Most chapters call attention to any differences that have been demonstrated between men and women. The task was to study moderately elevated blood pressure, rather than benefits from the treatment of severe hypertension or the prevention of cardiovascular disease in general. The review did not include any literature on impaired renal function associated with diabetes, hypertension during pregnancy or heart failure in hypertensives. The report is based on a systematic, step-by-step perusal of the literature. Following a structured review, studies were selected that exhibited satisfactory scientific quality (see Table 1 for a breakdown of those that were included in the final review). The project group members who had participated in one of the studies were not involved in the review of that study. Special attention should be paid to publication bias, i.e., studies that produced unfavorable results may be underrepresented among those appearing in scientific journals. However, the problem diminishes the larger and more well-known the study - for major studies of hypertension treatment, it would appear to be small
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