More than 100 gene regions associated with high blood pressure have been discovered, potentially enabling doctors to identify at-risk patients and target treatments.
By using genetic testing, doctors could target medication to certain hypertension patients and advise on relevant lifestyle changes to reduce a risk of heart disease and stroke, a study suggests.
As well as finding 107 new gene regions linked to hypertension, which affects 21 million (one in three) adults in the UK, researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London also developed a genetic “risk score” by linking health and hospital data from UK Biobank participants with their blood pressure genetics.
Risk score established
They showed that the score could be used to predict increased risk of stroke and coronary heart disease. The higher a patient’s risk score, the more likely they were to have high blood pressure by the age of 50.
Those on the top end of the risk scale were likely to have 10mmHg (millimeter of mercury) higher blood pressure than patients with lower risk scores. For every 10mmHg a person’s blood pressure is above normal, the risk of heart disease and stroke is increased by around 50 per cent or more.
Professor Mark Caulfield, from QMUL, said: “These exciting genetic regions could provide the basis for new innovative preventative therapies and lifestyle changes for this major cause of heart disease and stroke.”
