In adults with hypertension, do various antihypertensive drugs or drug classes differ in comparative benefits and harms on spe- cific health outcomes? The Evidence Review The evidence review focused on adults aged 18 years or older with hypertension and included studies with the following prespecified subgroups:diabetes,coronaryarterydisease,peripheralarterydis- ease, heart failure, previous stroke, chronic kidney disease (CKD), proteinuria,olderadults,menandwomen,racialandethnicgroups, and smokers. Studies with sample sizes smaller than 100 were ex- cluded, as were studies with a follow-up period of less than 1 year, because small studies of brief duration are unlikely to yield enough health-relatedoutcomeinformationtopermitinterpretationoftreat- ment effects. Studies were included in the evidence review only if theyreportedtheeffectsofthestudiedinterventionsonanyofthese important health outcomes: Overall mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) related mortality, CKD-related mortality Myocardial infarction, heart failure, hospitalization for heart fail- ure, stroke Coronary revascularization (includes coronary artery bypass sur- gery, coronary angioplasty and coronary stent placement), other revascularization (includes carotid, renal, and lower extremity re- vascularization) End-stage renal disease (ESRD) (ie, kidney failure resulting in di- alysis or transplantation), doubling of creatinine level, halving of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The panel limited its evidence review to RCTs because they are lesssubjecttobiasthanotherstudydesignsandrepresentthegold standard for determining efficacy and effectiveness.6 The studies ACEI angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor ARB angiotensin receptor blocker BP blood pressure CCB calcium channel blocker CKD chronic kidney disease CVD cardiovascular disease ESRD end-stage renal disease GFR glomerular filtration rate HF heart failure Clinical Review & Education Special Communication 2014 Guideline for Management of High Blood Pressure E2 JAMA Published online December 18, 2013 jama.com in the evidence review were from original publications of eligible RCTs. These studies were used to create evidence tables and sum- mary tables that were used by the panel for their deliberations (see Supplement). 