Handbook of disaster medicine : emergency medicine in mass casualty situations

Essential hypertension is a heterogeneous group of disorders of no definable cause. The commonly accepted view is that genetic influences interact with environmental factors in the onset of this chronic and degenerative disease. The aim of researchers in this field is to unravel the molecular and genetic architectures of the disease. The methods of molecular genetics are greatly contributing to decipher the puzzle and much information has been gathered lately. The powerful combination of linkage, sibpair and association analyses, together with studies of human genetic isolates and animal models allow the identification of specific genetic influences and the development of attempts at gene therapy. The aim of this mongraph is to provide coverage of some of these different aspects of modern research in hypertension and a summary of what amounts to an enormous body of literature.

• Genes for essential hypertension - the first decade of research, B.J. Morris
• candidate genes and small effects on blood pressure, R.A. Hegele
• ACEI/D polymorphism - a possible marker for genetic differences in blood pressure regulation, W. Friedl et al
• molecular genetics of hypertension in an isolated gulf Arab population, P.M. Frossard et al
• morphological and functional characterization of cerebral and coronory blood vessels from hypertensive animal models, Y. Nishimura and A. Suzuki
• changes in intracellular Ca2+ signalling indiced by docosahexaenoic acid in vascular smooth muscle cells from a genetic hypertension model, stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP), M. Hirafuji et al
• immunopathological correlates of hypertension, M.L. Lukic
• inherited disturbances of phenylalanine metabolic kinetics and its implication in the prevention and control of essential hypertension, Zhao Guangsheng
• recombinase-mediated gene therapy -gene repair/inactivation and targeted integration of minigenes, R. Bertolotti.