Christopher Patterson, MD, FRCPC, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.
John W. Feightner, MD, MSc, FCFP, Chair, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care; Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, ON.

The ultimate aim of critical appraisal is to decide whether the conclusions of an article are helpful in the prevention or management of illness in your patients. This requires the article to be relevant to your practice and to contain sufficient information to determine if the conclusions are supported by the evidence within it. We offer approaches to the appraisal of different types of publications addressing primary and secondary prevention.
Key words: prevention (primary, secondary), clinical research, critical appraisal, clinical practice guidelines.

Kelly B. Zarnke, MD, MSc, Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, and on behalf of the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP).

Poor blood pressure control, particularly among the older Canadian population, remains an important cause of preventable cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. It behooves Canadian health care workers to identify, treat and control hypertension. Recent trials, including ALLHAT and LIFE, add to the information clinicians need to achieve these targets. ALLHAT establishes the central role of thiazide-like diuretics for many hypertensive patients. ALLHAT demonstrates that good blood pressure control can be achieved in the majority of hypertensive patients if a systematic effort is maintained. LIFE adds important information regarding angiotensin receptor blockers as an effective alternative to the other commonly used classes of antihypertensive drugs, particularly among patients with diabetes or isolated systolic hypertension. Finally, the Canadian Hypertension Education Program will continue to produce and disseminate annually updated systematic reviews and recommendations related to the assessment and management of hypertension.
Key words: hypertension, recent clinical trials, clinical practice guidelines.