Genomic locations and related mapping data (Table 1) were obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The basic clinical characteristics of NT and EH groups are listed in Table 2. Age and sex were matched in the essential hypertensive (EH) and normotensive (NT) groups; body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were not, but these differences did not affect the results of analysis. The expected and observed genotypic frequencies of each SNP were in good agreement with the predicted Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium values (data not shown).