Correlation between Galectin-3 and Adverse Outcomes in Myocardial Infarction Patients: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a disease with high morbidity and mortality. Some new biomarkers can help us to improve the life quality and prognosis of AMI patients. OBJECTIVE: We therefore performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on the use of galectin-3 (gal3) for assessing prognosis of AMI patients. METHODS: We searched Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang database up to June 2019. Trials included using galectin-3 to estimate prognosis in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. RESULTS: We identified 10 trails with a total of 2809 participants. The negative correlation between galectin-3 and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was significant in 505 AMI patients (Fisher's Z −0.22, 95% CI: −0.34, −0.09). The correlation between galectin-3 and infarct size was not significant in 119 patients (Fisher's Z 0.12, 95% CI: −0.36, 0.60). Higher galectin-3 was associated with increased all-cause mortality in 2343 AMI patients (Fisher's Z 1.58, 95% CI: 1.23, 2.03). CONCLUSION: The limited evidence suggests that galectin-3 is likely to predict the adverse outcomes in MI patients, but it is not significantly correlated with infarct size after MI. More high-quality trials with longer-term follow-up are still needed to confirm this finding.