Genome scan meta-analysis for hypertension.
BACKGROUND
Genome scans for hypertension have yielded inconsistent results. The non-replication of significant or suggestive linkage might be due to lack of power of individual studies. Here, we conducted a genome scan meta-analysis for hypertension in an attempt to increase statistical power and to enhance evidence of linkage.


METHODS
A newly developed Genome Search Meta-analysis (GSMA) method was applied to pool the results obtained from six scans reported in five papers.


RESULTS
Our analysis did not find any regions with genome-wide significant linkage to hypertension. We did identify several regions with suggestive linkage, including 2p, 5q, 6q, 8p, 9p, 9q, and 11q.


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that no region has a uniformly large impact on hypertension and that susceptibility genes for hypertension may be very difficult to detect.
Liu
Wenlei
W
Department of Health Evaluation Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 07033, USA. wliu@hes.hmc.psu.edu
Zhao
Wei
W
Chase
Gary A
GA
D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D018343:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2 / Q000235:genetics
D018343:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2