ABSTRACT
In most earlier series of patients observed from the presumed onset of primary or essential hypertension, the age of onset was usually before the age of 50. More recently, however, more representative populations have been witnessed wherein as many as 20% of people who developed diastolic hypertension are over the age of 60. As noted earlier, the overwhelming majority of patients who develop isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) are well over 60, and the majority of hypertensives over the age of 55 have ISH (Franklin et al., 2001b).
