The DRIVE survey was organized in the Czech Republic in the offices of 119 general practitioners from April 2004 through June 2004. In total, 1156 patients with diagnosis of hypertension were included. The first phase of the DRIVE survey was looking at the main cardiovascular risk factors and the concomitant treatment, the 2nd phase was evaluating the acceptability and effect of antihypertensive treatment with added rilmenidine - performed as a nonintervention clinical evaluation in patients, where adaptation of the antihypertensive treatment was necessary. The DRIVE survey showed a high frequency of the cardiovascular risk factors in the followed up group of hypertensive patients. The most frequent risk factors were obesity or overweight (82.9%) and hypercholesterolemia (74.7%). Smoking was presented relatively less fre-quently (19%). Treatment with rilmenidine significantly increased the percentage of controlled hypertensive patients from 0.7% to 40%. There was a major and significant reduction in patients with severe hypertension from 19.3% to 3.4%. Treatment with rilmenidine also led to a mild but significant reduction ofthe heart rate. Treatment with rilmenidine was well tolerated.

        Key words: cardiovascular risk factors - hypertension - rilmenidine.