Conclusions that can be drawn from these observations are that when having access to data for the full distribution, case-control analyses using extremes can be useful to find additional loci. Although the analyzing the full distribution is generally more powerful, small amounts of heterogeneity in the distribution may allow for the identification of additional loci by analyzing the data using different cut-points, such as the tails. Further, as in most cases when resources are limited, our results indicate that a strategy with selection of individuals from the extremes for genetic analyses could be a cost-effective approach and will likely yield loci that are relevant and largely generalizable to the full population. Compatible with those of recent, smaller studies,21-23 our results show convincingly that this theoretically appealing approach also holds empirically.
