• Dirk J Lok, Sjoukje I Lok, Pieta W Bruggink-André de la Porte, Erik Badings, Eric Lipsic, Jan van Wijngaarden, Rudolf A de Boer, Dirk J van Veldhuisen, and Peter van der Meer.
• Deventer Hospital, Nico Bolkesteinlaan 75, 7415 CM, Deventer, The Netherlands. lokd@dz.nl
• Clin Res Cardiol. 2013 Feb 1; 102 (2): 103-10.

BackgroundGalectin-3 (Gal-3) is a recently discovered marker for myocardial fibrosis and elevated levels are associated with an impaired outcome after short-term follow-up in heart failure (HF) patients. However, whether Gal-3 is related to cardiac remodeling and outcome after long-term follow-up is unknown. Therefore, we determined the utility of Gal-3 as a novel biomarker for left ventricular remodeling and long-term outcome in patients with severe chronic HF.Methods And ResultsA total of 240 HF patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III and IV were included. Patients were followed for 8.7 ± 1 years, had a mean age of 71 ± 0.6 years and 73 % of the study population was male. Circulating levels of NT-proBNP and Gal-3 were measured. Serial echocardiography was performed at baseline and at 3 months. At baseline median left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) was 267 mL [interquartile range 232-322]. Patients were divided into three groups according to the change in LVEDV. Patients in whom the LVEDV decreased over time had significant lower levels of Gal-3 at entry compared to patients in whom the LVEDV was stable or increased (14.7 vs. 17.9 vs. 19.0 ng/mL; p = 0.004 for trend), whereas no significant differences were seen in levels of NT-proBNP (p = 0.33). Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that Gal-3 levels were positively correlated to change in LVEDV (p = 0.007). In addition, Gal-3 was a significant predictor of mortality after long-term follow-up (p = 0.001).ConclusionGal-3 is associated with left ventricular remodeling determined by serial echocardiography and predicts long-term mortality in patients with severe chronic HF.

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