Table 3. Status of systolic blood pressure at 6 months.

Variable	Office systolic pressure at baseline (mm Hg)
	<160	160–179	⩾180	Whole range
Number of patients	35	33	41	109
Office blood pressure
Normalization	13 (37.1)	8 (24.2)	4 (9.8)*	25 (22.9)
Improved	12 (34.3)	21 (63.6)†	32 (78.0)	65 (59.6)
No decrease	14 (40.0)	7 (21.2)	4 (9.8)	25 (22.9)
24-h blood pressure
Normalization	8 (22.9)	6 (18.2)	2 (4.9)*	16 (14.7)
Improved	13 (37.1)	11 (33.3)	10 (24.4)	34 (31.2)
No decrease	13 (37.1)	13 (39.4)	12 (29.3)	38 (34.9)

Values are number of patients (%). Reaching normal systolic blood pressure was achieving levels <140 mm Hg or <130 mm Hg on office or 24-h ambulatory measurement, respectively. Improvement was a decrease in the office or 24-h systolic pressure by ⩾10 mm Hg. No decrease was a systolic pressure at 6 months equal to or higher than the baseline value. Numbers do not add up, because of overlap between categories of achieved blood pressure.

Significance of the difference with the left adjacent subgroup: *0.07⩽P⩽0.09; †P=0.01.