Abstract: The invention relates to the use of a single-stranded or double-stranded nucleic acid comprising a fragment of hsgk for diagnosing hypertension, with said fragment being at least 10 nucleotides/base pairs in length and with said fragment furthermore comprising a polymorphism with ensues from the presence or absence of an insertion of the nucleotide G at position 732/733 in intron 2 of the hsgk1 gene. The invention furthermore relates to the use of the direct correlation between the overexpression or the functional molecular modification of human homologues of the sgk family and the length of the Q/T interval for diagnosing the long Q/T syndrome, and also to the use for the nucleic acid of a human homologue of the sgk gene family or of one of its fragments for diagnosing the long Q/T syndrome.

Abstract: The invention relates to the application of the direct correlation between the overexpression or the functional molecular modification of human homologs of the sgk family and hypertension for quantitative diagnosis of a particular form of genetically determined hypertension. In particular the invention relates to the detection of a direct link between two different polymorphisms of individual nucleotides in the hsgk1 gene and the genetically determined predisposition to hypertension. The invention further relates to the provision of a diagnostic kit containing antibodies or polynucleotides for detecting the diagnostic targets hsgk1, hsgk2 and hsgk3.