Relationship of galectin-3 to left ventricular geometry and hypertrophy in chronic hemodialysis patients.

Abstract

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. 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). 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. 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.