GENETICS OF HYPERTENSION

Primary essential hypertension is a complex cardiovascular abnormality determined by both environmental and genetic factors. Some rare famil ial forms of hypertension follow a simple mendelian mode of inheritanc e, whereas essential hypertension is considered to be a polygenetic di sease. Recent molecular genetic studies have revealed the molecular ba sis of some of these rare monogenetic forms of hypertension, e.g. gluc ocorticoid-remediable aldosteronism, Liddle's syndrome, or the syndrom e of apparant mineralocorticoid excess. In contrast, essential hyperte nsion has so far only been convincingly linked to the angiotensinogen- gene locus.