Brasileiro para o Tratamento da Hipertensão Arterial of 1998 was used. According to that criterion, individuals whose systolic blood pressure levels were >140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure levels were >90mmHg, or both, were consi- dered hypertensive. The classification of the elderly as hy- pertensive required alteration in at least 2 of the 3 following parameters investigated: increased systolic or diastolic blood pressures, or both; report of hypertension diagnosed by a physician; use of antihypertensive medication. Blood pressures were measured with a mercury sphygmomano- meter (Erka, Germany) with an adequate cuff for the right arm circumference. Each participant remained at rest (sit- ting) for at least 5 minutes prior to the measurements. Two measurements were taken with an interval of approximately 30 minutes between them. The appearance of the heart sounds was used to identify the systolic blood pressure and its disappearance (Korotkoff phase V) to identify the di- astolic blood pressure 24. Due to the possibility of pseudo- hypertension caused by stiffening of the brachial artery by atherosclerosis, which may increase blood pressure by 30 m mHg or more, the Osler maneuver was used concomitantly with systolic blood pressure measurement. The Osler ma- neuver is considered positive when the cuff is inflated abo- ve the systolic blood pressure level and the radial artery remains palpable 22. The cases, in which that happened, were excluded from the study 25.

Smoking was assessed through the report of using or not using tobacco (cigarettes and other forms). Two groups were considered: 1) nonsmokers - individuals who never smoked or who stopped smoking at least 2 years before the interview date, and who never resumed smoking; 2) current smokers or smokers - individuals who smoked at least 1 cigarette/day or who quit smoking less than 2 years before.

Statistical analysis was performed using version 9.0 of the statistical software SPSS, 1999 29. After the molecular dia- gnosis of the sample, the gene (or allele) and genotypic fre- quencies were calculated with the Hardy-Weinberg law 30. The genotypic frequencies were calculated with the equation p2 + q2 + r2 + 2pq + 2pr + 2qr = 1, in which p = allele e3 (the most frequent allele in the human populations studied up to that point), q = allele e4, and r= allele e2. The gene frequencies were calculated with the equation: p + q + r = 1, and they were tested for the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with the chi- square test of the observed and expected frequencies for each allele (the chi-square goodness-of-fit test).

Diabetes mellitus was defined when at least 1 of the following situations happened: the patient reported a previ- ous diagnosis by a physician; the patient was using a medi- cation (oral antidiabetic drugs or insulin, or both); when fasting glycemia was >126 mg/dL 26.

The following statistical analyses were performed to assess the association between the most frequent genoty- pes in the sample studied and the variables analyzed in the study: 1) test of association between categorical variables: the univariate nonparametric chi-square test for indepen- dent samples. In the cases in which the expected frequency was lower than 5 in a 2x2 table, the Fisher exact test was used. In both cases, two-tailed tests were used, because, being more conservative, spurious significances could be avoided; 2) multivariate analysis was performed with logis- tic regression. All variables with univariate statistical signi- ficance (p=0.1) were included in the test. To assess the inte- raction of the variables associated with the genotypes or the independent association of variables, each variable was excluded from the analysis. In case of significant loss (p=0.05) of a variable when another was excluded from the analysis, the association between them was considered; 3) comparison of continuous variables between the genoty- pes: the 1-way ANOVA or multifactorial ANOVA was used, followed by the Student t test or the Mann-Whitney test.

Morbidity due to cardiovascular diseases was defined by the presence of a previous personal history or diagnosis of angina or intermittent claudication or stroke, as descri- bed below: 1) thoracic pain of the anginal type or intermit- tent claudication, characterized by the presence of thoracic pain of the anginal type and intermittent claudication defi- ned by the report of such symptoms, according to Rose’s protocol; 2) stroke. The presence of ischemic stroke and acute myocardial infarction was defined by the report of such pathological situations and complementary neurologi- cal and cardiological examinations 27.

The variables of cardiovascular risk related to lifestyle were physical activity, alcohol ingestion, and smoking.

The physical activity was measured by calculating energy expenditure in kilocalories per week (kcal/week) for different activities using the intensity code of either Taylor et al or McArdle et al, or both, as an index of specific energy expenditiure in kcal/min for different physical activities. For classifying physical activity, we used the cut point of 3,000 kcal/week proposed by Paffenbarger, which was conside- red a physical activity level favorable to cardiovascular protection of middle-aged individuals 27,28.

This study was approved by the Scientific Commit- tee of the Medical School of the Pontifícia Universidade Ca- tólica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS) and by the Commi- ttee on Ethics and Research of the PUC-RS, and was referred to the National Committee on Ethics and Research of the National Health Committee of the Ministry of Health, becau- se it belonged to the area of genetics. All volunteers or a re-

Ingestion of alcoholic beverages was assessed through report of the amount of alcohol ingested per week. This was calculated in grams per week using the correc-