title: Galectin-3 is an independent predictor of survival in systemic sclerosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Galectin-3 is a beta-galactoside-binding lectin that may be related to tissue sclerosis or aberrant activation of angiogenesis in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of our study was to determine the associations between galectin-3 levels and patient characteristics, as well as to investigate the long term prognostic value of galectin-3 in a large cohort of SSc patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  152 patients with SSc (55±11years, 138 female) were included in our follow-up study. Blood samples and clinical data were collected at baseline. Primary and secondary outcomes were all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Galectin-3 levels showed positive correlation with the grade of left ventricular diastolic function (r=0.193; p=0.026), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=0.172; p=0.036) and serum level of C-reactive protein (r=0.200; p=0.015) while negative correlation with diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (r=-0.228; p=0.006), in age, gender and BSA adjusted analyses. During the follow-up of 7.2±2.3years, 35 SSc patients (23%) died. In multivariate Cox regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, BSA, creatinine and NT-proBNP levels, galectin-3 was an independent predictor both of the all-cause mortality (HR: 2.780, 95% CI: 1.320-5.858, p=0.007) and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 3.346, 95% CI: 1.118-10.012, p=0.031). Using receiver-operating characteristic analysis, galectin-3>10.25ng/ml was found to be the best predictor of the all-cause mortality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that galectin-3 is an independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in SSc. Validation studies are required to establish whether galectin-3 may be proposed as simple biomarker for identifying patients with high mortality risk in SSc.
authors.affiliation: Heart Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary. Electronic address: faludi.reka@pte.hu.
authors.forename: Réka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Faludi
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: Margit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tőkés-Füzesi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Medical Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: Krisztina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Czirják
authors.affiliation: Heart Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Komócsi
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D037502:Galectin 3
keywords: All-cause mortality; Cardiovascular mortality; Galectin-3; NT-proBNP; Systemic sclerosis