The Pandora study is a General Practitioners’ (GPs) project, whose aim is to establish an epidemiological database in order to describe and follow up hypertensive patients in the Ravenna area. OBJECTIVE: to investigate the feasibility of a cost of illness of the hypertensive patient in terms of healthcare resource use, and to produce an average cost per patient. METHOD: retrospective cost-of-illness analysis based on records of 209 hypertensive patients followed by 5 GPs. This preliminary analysis has been performed in the perspective of the community (including both direct and indirect costs). Patients analyzed were enrolled between April and November 96 and followed up at least for 6 months. Hospital admissions, GP, specialist and emergency room visits, instrumental and laboratory tests, drugs, productivity losses due to visits and hospitalizations, were analyzed; each cost variable was valued in Italian Liras 1996 (1,548 Lit = 1 US$) using published regional or national tariffs and market prices for drugs. RESULTS: the average cost per patient per 6 months was Lit 732,404. Direct costs accounted for 77.6 % of the total value while the remaining 22.4% was due to indirect costs (i.e. productivity losses). The major cost driver was drugs (35.1%) (26% was the share of antihypertensive drugs), followed by visits (21.4%), hospitalizations (16.0%), and tests (5.1 %). CONCLUSION: collection of cost data at the General Practitioner’s level is very effective as it allows a precise and appropriate analysis; only a few studies document the cost of the hypertensive patient and none has been done in Italy: our study puts the foundation for further in-depth analysis.