Objective To identify the association between human glucocorticoid receptor gene G166T polymorphism and essential hypertension(EH).Methods DNA samples from 71 normotensive cases and 48 EH cases were analyzed by a polymerase chain reaction(PCR) for restriction fragment length polymorphism(RFLP) to determine the intron 4 variant of human glucocorticoid receptor gene.Results No association was observed between EH group and control group.However,in females,a little association was observed between the EH group and control group.Frequencies of allele G were 0.64 in EH group and 0.46 in control group.Conclusion The G allele may be a predisposing gene marker,HGR gene intron 4 polymorphism contributes to the development of EH in females.