title: Biological variation of galectin-3 and soluble ST2 for chronic heart failure: implication on interpretation of test results.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Galectin-3 and soluble ST2 (sST2) are novel serum biomarkers of chronic heart failure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The biological variability of galectin-3 and sST2 was measured from a cohort of 17 healthy subjects where blood was taken once every 2 weeks for 8 weeks (n = 4 samples) and from 12 subjects where blood was taken hourly (for galectin-3 only). The analytical, intraindividual, and interindividual variation were measured for galectin-3 (BG Medicine, Waltham, MA) and sST2 (Critical Diagnostics, San Diego, CA). From these measurements, the reference change (RCV) and index of individuality was 39% (hourly) and 61% (weekly) and 1.0 (hourly and weekly) for galectin-3. Corresponding RCV and index of individuality values for sST2 were 30% and 0.25.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The RCV result for sST2 was lower than the corresponding results for galectin-3, B-type natriuretic peptide, and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide. These data suggest that sST2 may be more useful for monitoring long-term heart failure, and galectin-3 may be more useful for the diagnosis of heart failure remodeling.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Laboratory Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. wualan@labmed2.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Alan H B
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wians
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jaffe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D018450:Disease Progression; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000097:blood*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D000072179:Interleukin-1 Receptor-Like 1 Protein; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000097:blood*; D017472:Receptors, Interleukin-1; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013318:Stroke Volume; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D037502:Galectin 3; C079241:IL1RL1 protein, human; D000072179:Interleukin-1 Receptor-Like 1 Protein; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D017472:Receptors, Interleukin-1