Evaluation of galectin-3 in patients with heart failure and its relationship with NT-proBNP levels: A case-control study

Background: Cardiac fibrosis is a pathological phenomenon in cardiac remodelling and it is associated with heart diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of galactin-3 with N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) levels in patients with heart failure (HF). Material and Method: A total of 50 patients with HF and 30 patients with normal ejection fraction were enrolled into this study. Serum galectin‐3 levels and plasma NT-pro-BNP were measured in all subjects. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded. The galactin-3 and NT-pro-BNP levels were compared between the groups. Results: Patients with HF had significantly higher galactin-3 and NT-pro-BNP levels than control patients (37.50 (18.00-80.00) versus 12.00 (8.00-14.00), P<0.001; 467.00 (1157.50-5107.25) versus 50.00 (35.00-102.00) P<0.001, respectively). galactin-3 was correlated with serum glucose, creatine, left atrial diameter, ejection fraction and NT-pro-BNP in the HF patients. There was a positive and significant correlation between the NT-pro-BNP and Galactine-3 levels (r=0.742 P=0.001). In addition, there was an inverse and significant correlation between the ejection fraction and Galactine-3 levels (r=-0.556 P=0.001). Conclusion: This study demonstrated an association between galactin-3 and NT-pro-BNP levels. We found that galactin-3 and NT-pro-BNP levels was significantly higher in patients with HF. Our study also showed that galactin-3 was strongly correlated with NT-pro-BNP levels.