Severe
COVID-19 is related to hyperinflammation and multiple organ injury, including
respiratory failure, thus requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission.
Galectin-3, a
carbohydrate-binding protein exhibiting pleiotropic effects, has been previously recognized to participate in
inflammation, the immune response to
infections and
fibrosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between
galectin-3 and the clinical severity of
COVID-19, as well as assess the prognostic accuracy of
galectin-3 for the probability of ICU mortality. The study included 235
COVID-19 patients with active disease, treated in two different Greek hospitals in total. Our results showed that median
galectin-3 serum levels on admission were significantly increased in critical
COVID-19 patients (7.2 ng/mL), as compared to the median levels of patients with less severe disease (2.9 ng/mL, p = 0.003).
Galectin-3 levels of the non-survivors hospitalized in the ICU were significantly higher than those of the survivors (median 9.1 ng/mL versus 5.8 ng/mL, p = 0.001). The prognostic accuracy of
galectin-3 for the probability of ICU mortality was studied with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and a multivariate analysis further demonstrated that
galectin-3 concentration at hospital admission could be assumed as an independent risk factor associated with ICU mortality. Our results were validated with
galectin-3 measurements in a second patient cohort from a different Greek university hospital. Our results, apart from strongly confirming and advancing previous knowledge with two patient cohorts, explore the possibility of predicting ICU mortality, which could provide useful information to clinicians. Therefore,
galectin-3 seems to establish its involvement in the prognosis of hospitalized
COVID-19 patients, suggesting that it could serve as a promising
biomarker in critical
COVID-19.