Serum galectin-3 level increase correlates with poor prognosis in acute coronary syndrome

Levels of galectin-3 (GAL-3), a pro-inflammation biomarker, are closely associated with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, the predictive ability of GAL-3 for long-term adverse prognosis in ACS has not been well-investigated. This prospective cohort study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of GAL-3 using classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. A total of 134 patients with ACS at The Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical University were consecutively enrolled between January 2016 and May 2017. All included patients (102 [76.1%] male, median age, 58.18 years) completed follow-up (median, 6.5 years). The primary end-point was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), including all-cause death, need for rehospitalization due to severe angina, and revascularization (re-percutaneous coronary intervention). CART results showed that GAL-3 had better prognostic ability than the other four cytokines and that the optimal GAL-3 cut-off value was 1.778 ng/mL. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that the cumulative survival rate in the GAL-3 ≥ 1.778 ng/mL group was significantly lower than that in the GAL-3 < 1.778 ng/mL group (log-rank test, all p = 0.010). Cox regression analysis identified GAL-3 ≥ 1.778 ng/mL as an independent risk factor of long-term adverse prognosis in ACS. Serum level of the pro-inflammation cytokine GAL-3 ≥ 1.778 ng/mL was independently associated with a high risk of MACEs in patients with ACS.