Boston (SmartAboutHealth) - Researchers in the U.S. have managed to link high blood pressure or hypertension to a specific gene variant.

Yen-Pei Christy Chang led a team of researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine to study high blood pressure and its causes.

The research was carried out on 542 volunteers, all from the Old Order Amish community in Pennsylvania.

Researchers were able to actually discover a specific gene variant that was linked to high blood pressure.

The gene variant is known as STK39, and is believed to be a major cause of high blood pressure.

Those who have this gene variant are at a far greater risk of developing the condition which can lead to heart attacks, strokes, etc.

With this information now known, researchers are hopeful that they can take their findings and develop new methods to treat high blood pressure.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.