title: Relationship of galectin-3 to left ventricular geometry and hypertrophy in chronic hemodialysis patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is used to determine the prognosis of heart failure. Some studies revealed that Gal-3 promoted cardiac hypertrophy but there is no study in which the relationship between Gal-3 and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) geometry in patients without diastolic and systolic function impairment has been explored. The aim of the study was to analyze associations between plasma Gal-3 levels, LVH, and LV geometry in maintenance hemodialysis (HD) patients without systolic and diastolic dysfunction.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study group included 105 patients (53 women and 52 men)--with an average age of 58.2 ± 12.6 years, treated with HD for an average of 45 ± 32 months--and 60 healthy controls. The Gal-3 and other biochemical parameters were measured and color Doppler echocardiography was performed. For this study LVH was considered present when the LV mass index (LVMI) exceeded 95 g/m(2) in women and 115 g/m(2) in men. Left ventricular geometry was classified into the four groups on the basis of left ventricular mass and relative wall thickness (RWT).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Concentric hypertrophy (CH, 40.9 %, n = 43) was the commonest geometric pattern in our study. The Gal-3 levels in CH patients were not different from the patients with eccentric hypertrophy (EH). Plasma levels of Gal-3 correlated with LVMI (r = 0.617, p < 0.001), parathyroid hormone (PTH, r = 0.408, p < 0.001), uric acid (r = 0.281, p = 0.004), C-reactive protein (CRP, r = 0.412, p < 0.001), and RWT (r = 0.281, p = 0.004) but were inversely correlated with albumin (r = - 0.466, P < 0.001) in the whole group. Plasma levels of Gal-3 were associated with LVMI (r = 0.812, P < 0.001), RWT (r = 0.318, p = 0.001), and CRP(r = 0.381, p < 0.001) in maintenance hemodialysis patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Gal-3 level is related to left ventricular hypertrophy and it is independent of left ventricle geometry. The relationship between LVH and Gal-3 might be direct or it may also be inflammation-related.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Nephrology, Turgut Ozal University, School of Medicine, Alparslan Türkes Cad. No: 57, 06510, Emek/Ankara, Turkey, drhakkiyilmaz@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: O M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Gurel
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bozkurt
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Yildirim
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bilgic
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bilgic
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bavbek
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akcay
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology*; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D011379:Prognosis; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3