In this large, ethnically-diverse GERA cohort with EHR-derived BP measures, we discovered 39 novel genome-wide significant BP loci, most replicating in ICBP and UKB. Merging GERA and ICBP identified 36 additional novel genome-wide significant loci, most replicating in UKB. Finally, merging all three cohorts identified 241 additional genome-wide significant loci, although no replication was available. Conversely, we were able to replicate almost all 85 previously-described BP SNPs. We also showed that using multiple EHR BP measurements almost doubled variance explained, although the total variance explained remains small (e.g., 2.9% for SBP in non-Hispanic whites). We also showed that BP signals are enriched in two large arteries, aorta and tibial.
