Institute of Respiratory Disease, Cardio-Thoracic Department, University of Medicine "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Institute of Clinical Pathology, University of Medicine "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
Respir Med. 2021 Oct;187:106556. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2021.106556. Epub 2021 Aug 4.
Galectin-3 is β-galactoside-binding lectin with several roles in immune-inflammatory response. To date, there is no evidence of Galectin-3 role as a prognostic biomarker in COVID-19 disease. The aim of this study is to clarify the prognostic role of Galectin-3 in patients with COVID 19 acute respiratory failure.
We enrolled 156 consecutive patients with COVID-19 disease. Routine laboratory test, arterial blood gas, chest X-ray or Computed Tomography and Galectin-3 dosage were performed. The primary outcome was to assess Galectin-3 predictive power for 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes were 30-day Intensive Care Unit admission and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome stratification according to Galectin-3 dosage. We performed Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests for continuous variables comparison. Fisher's exact test or Chi-square test were used for categorical variables analysis. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves estimated Galectin-3 predictive power for the endpoints. With a fixed cut-off of 35.3 ng/ml, Kaplan-Meier with Log-Rank test and Cox Regression were performed to assess mortality and Intensive Care Unit admission risk.
Galectin-3 correlated with many other prognostic predictors tested in our analysis. Moreover, patients with serum levels of Galectin-3 above 35.3 ng/ml had increased risk for mortality, Intensive Care Unit admission and severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
Our study demonstrates the role of Galectin-3 as a predictor of mortality, Intensive Care Unit access and ARDS stratification in patients with COVID 19 acute respiratory failure.
半乳糖凝集素-3 是一种 β-半乳糖苷结合凝集素，在免疫炎症反应中具有多种作用。迄今为止，尚无证据表明半乳糖凝集素-3 可作为 COVID-19 疾病的预后生物标志物。本研究旨在阐明半乳糖凝集素-3 在 COVID-19 急性呼吸衰竭患者中的预后作用。
我们纳入了 156 例连续的 COVID-19 患者。进行了常规实验室检查、动脉血气、胸部 X 线或计算机断层扫描以及半乳糖凝集素-3 剂量检测。主要结局是评估半乳糖凝集素-3 对 30 天死亡率的预测能力。次要结局是根据半乳糖凝集素-3 剂量评估 30 天重症监护病房入院和急性呼吸窘迫综合征分层。我们对连续变量进行了 Mann-Whitney U 和 Kruskal-Wallis 检验比较。对分类变量进行了 Fisher 确切检验或卡方检验。接收者操作特征曲线估计了半乳糖凝集素-3 对终点的预测能力。以固定截距 35.3ng/ml 进行 Kaplan-Meier 对数秩检验和 Cox 回归，以评估死亡率和重症监护病房入院风险。
半乳糖凝集素-3 与我们分析中测试的许多其他预后预测因素相关。此外，血清半乳糖凝集素-3 水平高于 35.3ng/ml 的患者死亡风险、重症监护病房入院和严重急性呼吸窘迫综合征的风险增加。
我们的研究表明，半乳糖凝集素-3 是 COVID-19 急性呼吸衰竭患者死亡率、重症监护病房入院和 ARDS 分层的预测因子。
