Cardiovascular benefit of treating mild hypertension

Reduced incidence of fatal and total coronary heart disease (CHD) events and strokes following antihypertensive therapy in 17 controlled studies involving almost 48,000 patients with mild to moderate hypertension. The number of patients having each of these events is depicted, with active treatment lowering the incidence of coronary events by 16 percent and stroke by 40 percent. However, the absolute benefit (as shown, in percent, by the numbers at the top of the graph) was much less. Treatment for approximately four to five years prevented a coronary event or a stroke in 2 percent of patients (0.7 + 1.3), including prevention of death in 0.8 percent.