Pickering first showed that blood pressure distribution is unimodal and that the diagnosis of
essential (primary) hypertension is an arbitrary quantitative trait. His family studies
suggested that not 1, but many, perhaps 30 or more, gene variations are responsible for
raising blood pressure. Two approaches have been used to address the genetics of
essential hypertension. Candidate genes have been selected by virtue of their physiologic
function, and case-control association studies have been performed. Numerous candidates …