Objective: Objective assessment of cardiovascular risk (CVR) in patients with arterial hypertension (AH), who first contacted with primary care setting. Design and method: 300 patients (age 40–65 years) with sustained increase in arterial pressure and first seek medical attention were included in the study. All patients underwent medical examination, history taking to identify risk factors, blood pressure measurement and anthropometric research, biochemical blood assay to estimate levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, glucose. Based on the specified parameters, the risk was determined by SCORE (Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation). After the risk assessment, all patients underwent an echo-cardiography, duplex ultrasonography screening of the brachiocephalic arteries and determination of microalbuminuria to detect target organ damage. According to results of a complex survey, the risk was reclassified based on the presence of target organ damage. Results: The study showed that patients with sustained AH who first seek medical attention have a large number of risk factors and their combinations, among which the most common are dyslipidemia (89,3%), smoking (37,7%) and obesity (28,3%). Patients with AH who first seek medical attention without clinical signs of atherosclerosis often have various disorders of target organs, such as left ventricular hypertrophy — 67,3%, thickening of carotid intima-media complex — 46,3%, atherosclerotic plaques in carotid arteries — 34,7%, microalbuminuria — 25,3%, as well as different combinations thereof. After a complex examination, the CVR profile of patients changes increases. According to SCORE 60% of patients with low and mean risk is reclassified to high risk. Conclusions: The results show the importance of examination of AH patients aimed at revealing of target organ damage for reclassification of CV risk and adequate strategy of treatment.