Background: The purpose of our study was to assess the diagnostic power of galectin-3 and compare its between rheumatic diseases and with routinely used tests such as CRP and ESR.
Methods: Eighty-two patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 49 patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and 18 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were enrolled in this study. The control group comprised 30 healthy controls. Serum galectin-3 concentration was measured using immunochemical method.
Results: The galectin-3 concentration were significantly elevated in the RA, SSc, and SLE in comparison to the controls (p = 0.000, p = 0.000, p < 0.001; respectively). However, there were no significant differences in the serum galectin-3 levels between rheumatic diseases (H = 0.395, p = 0.821). In RA and SSc patients, galectin-3 positively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (R = 0.332, p = 0.004; R = 0.384, p = 0.009; respectively). ROC analysis revealed that galectin-3 had an excellent diagnostic power in RA (AUC = 0.911) and SSc (AUC = 0.903) and very good for SLE (AUC = 0.859).
Conclusion: We concluded that diagnostic power of serum galectin-3 is as great as CRP and ESR in rheumatic diseases and it can be a very good laboratory marker in RA and SSc patients and a useful tool in the diagnosis of SLE.
Keywords: galectin-3; rheumatoid arthritis; systemic lupus erythematosus; systemic sclerosis.