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(Hypertension. 2001;37:928.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Scientific Contributions

Familial Factors of Blood Pressure and Adiposity Covariation

Gregory Livshits; Linda M. Gerber

From the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology (G.L.), Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Department of Public Health, Weill Medical College, Cornell University, New York, NY.

Correspondence to Dr Gregory Livshits, Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. E-mail gregl{at}post.tau.ac.il

In the present study, we used the maximum likelihood approach as implemented by variance analysis and attempted to quantify genetic and environmental components of variance in systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure in 514 individuals who belonged to a total of 135 nuclear families of Chuvasha, Russia, ethnic origin. The extent to which these interindividual differences depend on age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and other anthropometric measurements was investigated. Major findings include the following. (1) The variation in both SBP and DBP was significantly affected by genetic factors (h²_SBP=0.51±0.13, h²_DBP=0.20±0.09), shared household environment, and age. These effects were stronger with respect to SBP, which also showed significant gender differences in baseline values and rate of SBP increase with age. (2) Genetic and common household factors, as well as undetected residual effects, were not completely independent. The respective 3 facets of correlation between SBP and DBP were significant: 0.66±0.10, 0.76±0.11, and 0.55±0.14. (3) SBP and DBP each showed significant phenotypic correlations with BMI and anthropometric factors. These correlations had a substantial genetic component but were not equal for SBP and DBP. SBP showed the highest genetic correlation with arm circumference (r_G=0.63), whereas for DBP, this was found with hip skinfold (r_G=0.88). (4) Bivariate heritability estimates, as well as adjustment of BP measurements for BMI and selected anthropometrics, indicated that DBP likely does not have independent genetic heritability. The residual genetic variance of adjusted SBP remained significant, although substantially lower in comparison with the nonadjusted h².

Key Words: blood pressure • genetics • anthropometrics • body mass index

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