OBJECTIVE To find the risk of ischaemic cardiopathy in a sample of hypertension patients. METHODS Crossover study. METHODS Almanjáyar and Cartuja Health Centres (Granada). PATIENTS AND OTHERS TAKING PART: 202 Hypertension patients included in the programme and belonging to three practices in the above-mentioned centres. RESULTS We determined the variable of age, gender, overall cholesterol, cholesterol-HDL, TAS, HVI in ECG and we recorded the number of check-ups over the last year, tobacco consumption and diabetes. The 47% of men and 46% of women presented a RCI higher than that of the population as a whole for their age and gender group, in spite of treatment and intervention on these risk factors. Men between 45 and 64 presented higher RCI than women (p < 0.001) and had fewer check-ups. CONCLUSIONS We consider that our programme did not sufficiently affect the prevention of ischaemic cardiopathy. It was especially deficient in the monitoring of men between 45 and 64 years. We think that the maintenance of programmes oriented round particular pathologies, instead of integrated programmes, is not sufficient to reduce ischaemic cardiopathy, which clearly has a multiple-cause origin.