Genetic Predisposition to Higher Blood Pressure Increases Risk of Incident Hypertension and Cardiovascular Diseases in Chinese

Abstract

Recently, GWAS in East Asian and Chinese not only replicated previously reported BP loci in European populations but also identified several East Asian-specific variants for BP, 4,12 which suggested that both shared and population-specific BP susceptibility were commonly present. Moreover, besides genetic heterogeneity, there are marked differences between Chinese and Europeans in environmental exposure factors, including weight, diet, physical activity, obesity, alcohol drinking, and Abstract-Although multiple genetic markers associated with blood pressure have been identified by genome-wide association studies, their aggregate effect on risk of incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease is uncertain, particularly among East Asian who may have different genetic and environmental exposures from Europeans. We aimed to examine the association between genetic predisposition to higher blood pressure and risk of incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease in 26 262 individuals in 2 Chinese population-based prospective cohorts. A genetic risk score was calculated based on 22 established variants for blood pressure in East Asian. We found the genetic risk score was significantly and independently associated with linear increases in blood pressure and risk of incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease (P range from 4.57×10 -3 to 3.10×10 -6 ). In analyses adjusted for traditional risk factors including blood pressure, individuals carrying most blood pressure-related risk alleles (top quintile of genetic score distribution) had 40% (95% confidence interval, 18-66) and 26% (6-45) increased risk for incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease, respectively, when compared with individuals in the bottom quintile. The genetic risk score also significantly improved discrimination for incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease and led to modest improvements in risk reclassification for cardiovascular disease (all the P<0.05). Our data indicate that genetic predisposition to higher blood pressure is an independent risk factor for blood pressure increase and incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease and provides modest incremental information to cardiovascular disease risk prediction. The potential clinical use of this panel of blood pressure-associated polymorphisms remains to be determined. (Hypertension. 2015;66:786-792.

Recent development of risk-prediction models for incident hypertension: An updated systematic review

“…The number of SNPs used in these studies ranged from 2 to 32 ( S2 Table ). The AUC or C-statistic of models[ 11 , 21 ] including GRS were superior compared to those without GRS (C-index change = 0.3%–0.5%; p <0.05). Twelve studies proposed to build models with logistic regression, 7 with COX regression, 6 with Weibull regression, and 1 with linear regression.…”

“…Two studies[ 17 , 31 ] defined isolated systolic hypertension as SBP ≥140 mmHg and DBP ≤ 90 mmHg, and isolated diastolic hypertension as DBP ≥ 90 mmHg and SBP ≤ 140 mmHg. Twenty studies used traditional factors only, and 6 studies[ 11 , 14 , 16 , 19 , 21 , 26 ] also included Genetic Risk Score (GRS) factors (indeed, 2 studies[ 19 , 26 ] used genetic risk factors exclusively). The common predictors included in most models were age, gender, BMI, SBP, DBP, and parental history of hypertension.…”

“…In a Korean population[ 26 ], GRS was constructed by 4 SNPs based on GWAS, which was independently associated with the risk of incident hypertension. Among the 4 SNPs, rs17249754 was the same predictor as that selected in 2 Chinese genetic studies[ 19 , 21 ], and rs1378942 was the same as that used in the Swedish genetic study[ 14 ]. However, adding GRS into models with traditional risk factors did not significantly improve the discrimination ability.…”

Sleep and hypertension

“…Hypertension, also known as high or raised blood pressure, is a condition in which the blood vessels have persistently raised pressure [1]. It is a global public health issue, as well as an important factor for cardiovascular diseases [2][3][4]. It has been reported that one in four men and one in five women have raised blood pressure.…”

Associations of Blood Pressure with the Factors among Adults in Jilin Province: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Quantile Regression Analysis

“…Hypertension is believed as a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and has brought heavy economic burden to individuals, families, and society 1 – 4 . It is a great challenge for public health worldwide, because of its high prevalence, which accounts for nearly half of the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the world 5 , 6 .…”