Objectives

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusions

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.

中文翻译：

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Galectin-3 作为 COVID-19 急性呼吸衰竭患者的预后生物标志物

目标

Galectin-3 是 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，没有证据表明 Galectin-3 作为 COVID-19 疾病的预后生物标志物。本研究的目的是阐明 Galectin-3 在 COVID 19 急性呼吸衰竭患者中的​​预后作用。

方法

我们连续招募了 156 名 COVID-19 患者。进行了常规实验室检查、动脉血气、胸片或计算机断层扫描和 Galectin-3 剂量。主要结果是评估 Galectin-3 对 30 天死亡率的预测能力。次要结果是 30 天入住重症监护病房和根据 Galectin-3 剂量对急性呼吸窘迫综合征进行分层。我们进行了 Mann-Whitney U 和 Kruskal-Wallis 检验以进行连续变量比较。Fisher 精确检验或卡方检验用于分类变量分析。接受者操作特征曲线估计 Galectin-3 对终点的预测能力。以 35.3 ng/ml 的固定截止值，进行 Kaplan-Meier 对数秩检验和 Cox 回归来评估死亡率和重症监护病房入院风险。

结果

Galectin-3 与我们分析中测试的许多其他预后预测因子相关。此外，Galectin-3 血清水平高于 35.3 ng/ml 的患者死亡、入住重症监护室和严重急性呼吸窘迫综合征的风险增加。

结论

我们的研究证明了 Galectin-3 在 COVID 19 急性呼吸衰竭患者中作为死亡率、重症监护病房进入和 ARDS 分层的预测因子的作用。