Changes of serum galectin-3 have been associated with the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular diseases. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic role of serum galectin-3 in patients with acute heart failure (AHF) in a meta-analysis. Follow-up studies evaluating the association between serum galectin-3 on admission and clinical outcomes in AHF patients were identified via search of PubMed and Embase databases. A random effects or a fixed effects model was applied to pool the results depending on the heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis was used to evaluate the influences of study characteristics on the outcomes. Overall, 7057 AHF patients from eighteen follow-up studies were included. Higher serum galectin-3 was associated with higher risks of all-cause mortality (adjusted risk ratio [RR], 1.58; p < 0.001), mortality/HF rehospitalization (RR, 1.68; p < 0.001), and cardiovascular mortality (RR, 1.29; p = 0.04), but not HF rehospitalization (RR, 1.24; p = 0.25) in AHF patients. Subgroup analyses showed that study characteristics including study design, sample size, age, gender, left ventricular ejection fraction, galectin-3 variable type, follow-up duration, and adjustment of type B natriuretic peptide did not significantly impact the results. Significant heterogeneities were detected for the outcomes of all-cause mortality and mortality/HF rehospitalization. However, trim-and-fill analyses by including the imputed studies to generate symmetrical funnel plots showed similar significant meta-analysis results. These results suggested that higher serum galectin-3 may be associated with poor prognosis in AHF patients. Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms underlying the potential prognostic role of galectin-3 in AHF.
Keywords: Acute heart failure; Galectin-3; Meta-analysis; Mortality; Rehospitalization.