Epidemiologic data have established a continuous relationship between vascular risk and blood pressure that extends down to levels as low as 115/75 mmHg and doubles with each increment of 20/10 mmHg (1-4), emphasizing the lack of a critical thresholdvalue which defines ‘high’ blood pressure. Acknowledging the graded and continuous nature of the relations of blood pressure tovascular risk, all the International guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of arterial hypertension (2-4) introduced the new concepts of “high-normal blood pressure” and “pre-hypertension”. ...