JAMA Cardiology

Milad Nazarzadeh, Ana-Catarina Pinho-Gomes, Karl Smith Byrne

In the absence of randomized clinical trials of BP-lowering treatment on the risk of incident VHD, we aimed to test the hypothesis that systolic BP is associated with the risk of aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, and mitral regurgitation, using a mendelian randomization study design. This approach uses the naturally occurring randomized exposure of individuals to genetic variants that are highly associated with lifetime systolic BP. Mendelian randomization is similar to random allocation of intervention in randomized clinical trials and can thus overcome the problems of reverse causation and confounding that are typical of nonrandomized observational studies