Galectin-3 changes from admission to discharge and its prognostic value for in-hospital mortality in heart failure: A prospective observational study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the levels of Galectin-3 (Gal-3) in heart failure patients at admission and discharge, and to evaluate the ability of Gal-3 at admission in predicting in-hospital mortality. A total of 111 patients were enrolled. Gal-3 and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels were measured at admission and discharge. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to determine the optimal cutoff values for Gal-3 and BNP, and logistic regression was used to assess the predictive ability of these biomarkers for in-hospital mortality. Gal-3 levels at discharge (24.08 ± 9.55) were significantly lower than those at admission (30.71 ± 11.22). The majority of patients (72.07%) experienced a decrease in Gal-3 levels, with a median reduction of 19.9% (interquartile range [IQR] 8.7–29.8). Gal-3 levels showed a weak correlation with BNP levels both at admission and discharge. Combining Gal-3 and BNP significantly improved the ability to predict in-hospital mortality, and including heart failure stage as a third predictor further improved the predictive accuracy. The optimal cutoff values for Gal-3 and BNP to predict in-hospital mortality were identified as 28.1 ng/mL and 1782.6 pg/mL, respectively, with moderate to good sensitivity and specificity. A median reduction of 19.9% of Gal-3 may indicate possibility to discharge. Our findings suggest that Gal-3 and BNP, when combined with heart failure stage, may be useful for predicting in-hospital mortality.