Highlights and summary of the 2006 Canadian Hypertension Education Program recommendations

The present paper summarizes and highlights key messages of the 2006 Canadian Hypertension Education Program recommendations for the management and diagnosis of hypertension. An important message in the 2006 Canadian Hypertension Education Program recommendations is to improve patient adherence to antihypertensive therapy by incorporating a number of techniques. These new recommendations still need to be incorporated into what remain as the older but still important considerations for the diagnosis, management and treatment of the patient with hypertension, namely, to assess blood pressure in all adults at all appropriate visits, to expedite the diagnosis of hypertension, to assess and manage global cardiovascular risk, to emphasize that lifestyle modifications are the cornerstone of antihypertensive therapy, to treat to target, and to use combinations of antihypertensive medications and lifestyles to achieve recommended targets. Minor changes in pharmacological therapies are discussed, and potentially important aspects related to home and self-monitoring, particularly with respect to patients with masked hypertension (blood pressure controlled in the office but not at home), are introduced.