BG Medicine announced the publication of two studies demonstrating the clinical utility of repeated galectin-3 testing as a tool in the assessment of patients with heart failure. The studies, which together involved more than 3,300 subjects, demonstrate that periodic evaluation of galectin-3 levels can help clinicians identify those at greater risk of unplanned hospital admission and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The first study, published online ahead of print in the current issue of Circulation Heart Failure, demonstrated that patients who experienced increases in their galectin-3 levels in excess of 15% over a period of three to six months had nearly double the risk of subsequent unplanned hospital admissions and mortality relative to patients who did not experience changes in their galectin-3 levels over the same time period. This increased risk was found to be independent of other important risk factors in heart failure, including cardiac function, renal function, age, and levels of NT-proBNP. The second study, published online ahead of print in the European Journal of Heart Failure, demonstrated that patients who experienced increases in galectin-3 levels over a period of four months were at significantly increased risk of subsequent unplanned hospital admissions for heart failure, first morbid event, and mortality. The increased risk associated with elevations in galectin-3 was found to be independent of all other baseline heart failure risk factors considered. Importantly, this increased risk associated with galectin-3 elevation was also demonstrated to be independent of, and additive to, concomitant changes in other important heart failure risk factors, including cardiac structure, renal function, blood pressure, heart rate, NT-proBNP levels, and other clinical patient parameters.

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BG Medicine publishes 2 studies supporting repeat Galectin-3 testing