Flowchart illustrating the selection criteria for genetic instruments in this study. BP indicates blood pressure; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; GWAS, Genome-wide association study; CVD, cardiovascular disease; eQTL, expression quantitative trait loci; LD, linkage disequilibrium; MR, Mendelian randomization; BMI, body mass index. * 242 SNPs associated with both SBP and DBP (p < 5 × 10−4), identified in a BP GWAS meta-analysis study [17]. ** 120 SNPs associated with SBP but not associated with DBP (p < 5 × 10−4). *** 80 SNPs associated with DBP but not associated with SBP (p < 5 × 10−4). † 63 SNPs associated with SBP (p < 5 × 10−8) but not associated with DBP (p > 5 × 10−4). ‡ 54 SNPs associated with DBP (p < 5 × 10−8) but not with SBP (p > 5 × 10−4). § MR analysis unadjusted for body mass index, using summary statistics from UK BioBank data.