The general design of the scientific statement is based on the concept that each of the clinical sections refers to a particular subset of patients, so each section should pro- vide a stand-alone description of the recommendations and their justification independently of the other sections. This should make it easier for practitioners to extract the infor- mation relevant to any particular patient without needing to cross-reference, and we hope it will thereby increase the utility of this document. With this organization, there may be some repetition of information from one section to the next, but we have tried to keep that to a minimum. A summary of the main recommendations is presented in Tables 2 and 3. 1. Relationship Between Hypertension and CAD 1.1. Epidemiology of Hypertension and CAD Hypertension is a major independent risk factor for CAD for all age/race/sex groups. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure3 uses the traditional definition of hypertension as an SBP of 140 mmHg or a DBP of 90 mmHg and/or the current use of antihyperten- sive medication. With this definition, an estimated 65 million adult Americans, or nearly one fourth of the adult population of the United States, have hypertension.Another quarter of the population have prehypertension, defined as an SBP of 120 to 139 mmHg or a DBP of 80 to 89 mmHg. The forms of BP elevation differ as a function of age, with DBP elevation predominating in young hypertensive indi- viduals and systolic hypertension, often in isolation (isolated systolic hypertension), emerging in older age. The prevalence of hypertension is thus directly proportional to the age of the population, with more than half of Americans >65 years of age having a high BP. 