Usefulness of Plasma Galectin-3 Levels in Systolic Heart Failure to Predict Renal Insufficiency and Survival

Galectin-3 plays an important role in fibroblast activation and fibrosis in animal models. Increased galectin-3 levels are associated with poor long-term survival in heart failure (HF). We examined the relation between plasma galectin-3 levels and myocardial indexes of systolic HF. We measured plasma galectin-3 in 133 subjects with chronic HF and 45 with advanced decompensated HF using echocardiographic and hemodynamic evaluations. In the chronic HF cohort, median plasma galectin-3 level was 13.9 ng/ml (interquartile range 12.1 to 16.9). Higher galectin-3 was associated with more advanced age (r = 0.22, p = 0.010), poor renal function (estimated glomerular filtration rate, r = −0.24, p = 0.007; cystatin C, r = 0.38, p