[Which is the optimal pressure level to be obtained with antihypertensive treatment?]

To what level blood pressure should be brought by antihypertensive treatment is a question with relevant clinical bearing that hypertensiologists have regrettably not yet investigated in a direct way. As a consequence of the lack of direct data on this problem, a dispute has been going on for some time as to whether a decrease in blood pressure below 85 mmHg increases, rather than further decreasing, the coronary risk of the hypertensive patients (the "J-curve" hypothesis). The problem has been finally approached through the design and the initiation of an appropriate large controlled trial, the Hypertension Optimal Treatment (HOT) study.