Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: High circulating levels of galectin-3 are associated with all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the impact of anemia on the prediction of galectin-3 with cause-specific mortality in patients with suspected or known CAD is unknown.
Methods: Serum levels of galectin-3 were measured in 2,418 patients with suspected or known CAD undergoing elective coronary angiography. The outcomes were all-cause death, CV death, and non-CV death. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the presence (n=882) or absence (n=1,536) of anemia, and followed up over a 6-year period.
Results: During the follow-up, 329 anemic and 207 non-anemic patients died of any cause, 116 anemic and 50 non-anemic patients died of CV diseases, and 187 anemic and 139 non-anemic patients died of non-CV diseases. After adjustment for potential clinical confounders and established CV biomarkers, log-transformed (Ln-) galectin-3 levels were significantly associated with all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR] for 1-SD increase, 1.23; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.37) and non-CV death (HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.13–1.50), but not with CV death (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.95–1.41) in the entire cohort; significantly associated with all-cause death (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.03–1.41) and non-CV death (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.20–1.85), but not with CV death (HR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.72–1.24), in anemic patients; and significantly associated with all-cause death (HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.13–1.57) and CV death (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.00–1.42), but not with non-CV death (HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 0.95–1.43), in non-anemic patients. We also evaluated the incremental predictive performance of galectin-3 by calculating continuous net reclassification improvement, and integrated discrimination improvement metrics. The addition of Ln-galectin-3 levels to the model with potential clinical confounders and established CV biomarkers further improved the prediction of all-cause death and non-CV death, but not that of CV death, in the entire cohort and in anemic patients, and the prediction of all-cause death and CV death, but not that of non-CV death, in non-anemic patients.
Conclusions: In patients with suspected or known CAD, distinct differences were observed between anemic and non-anemic patients, in the prediction for cause-specific mortality by galectin-3 levels, which independently predicted non-CV mortality in anemic patients and CV mortality in non-anemic patients.