Genetics of inflammation in high blood pressure

Hypertension means high blood pressure, or HBP. Blood pressure is based on the amount of blood pumped by your heart and the size of your arteries. Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood to the body. HBP is when pressure in your arteries stays higher than it should. Over time, HBP can lead to problems, like heart disease, a heart attack, or stroke. Most of the time, we do not know what causes HBP. Scientists studied patients that have chronic, or long-term, swelling conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis. They noticed that those patients tend to have HBP more often than healthy people. So scientists think that inflammation, or swelling, might have a role. Researchers in this study will use BioVU to look for patients that have rheumatoid arthritis. They will divide them into two groups. One group will also have HBP. The other group will not. Then they will check both groups for changes in the genes involved in swelling. They think the group that also has HBP will have more gene changes than the other group. This study may help us understand how swelling relates to high blood pressure. It may also help doctors better treat patients at risk for high blood pressure.