Concentration of galectin-3 in blood plasma in patients with stage IIІ hypertension and its changes in the presence of comorbid chronic coronary disease and frequent ventricular extrasystole

Abstract

The aim of the work – to investigate the content of galectin-3 in blood plasma in patients with hypertension stage IIІ and its changes in the presence of comorbid chronic coronary artery disease and frequent ventricular extrasystole.
Materials and methods. We examined 120 people, including 34 (28.3 %) women and 86 (71.7 %) men, with an average age of 57.3±0.9 years, with hypertension (HD) stage IIІ with/without comorbidity of chronic coronary disease (CHD) and frequent ventricular extrasystole (VE). All patients undergone echocardiography, Holter monitoring of electrocardiograms, stress tests and/or coronary ventriculography. Considering the presence or absence of comorbid CHD and frequent VE, four groups of patients were identified: 1st (n=30) – patients with HD without concomitant CHD and VE, 2nd (n=30) – patients with HD and frequent VE, 3rd (n=30) – patients with HD and concomitant CHD, 4th (n=30) – patients with HD and concomitant CHD and frequent VE. The content of galectin-3 in EDTA blood plasma was determined by immunoenzymatic method using a commercial kit «Human GAL3 (Galectin 3) ELISA Kit» («Elabscience iotechnology Inc.», USA). Statistical analysis of the study results was performed using methods of variational statistics with Microsoft Excel (2019) and Statistica 12.0 (Statsoft, USA).
Results. It was determined that in patients with HD stage IIІ with and without concomitant CHD and frequent VE (n=120), the mean plasma galectin-3 level was 2.54±1.12 ng/ml (median value – 2.47; interquartile range – 1.67 and 3.27 ng/ml). The rounded median value of the indicator was used to identify uniform groups with relatively low and relatively high galectin-3 content (hereinafter referred to as RLC and RHC, respectively). The RLC of galectin-3 for the examined sample was ≤ 2.5 and the RHC was > 2.5 ng/ml, respectively. Significantly higher plasma galectin-3 levels (3.41 ng/mL) were found in the group with HD and concomitant CHD and VE, and the lowest (1.74 ng/mL) in patients with HD without concomitant CHD and VE.
Conclusions. Increased plasma galectin-3 concentration is associated with older age and male gender, the presence of alimentary-constitutional obesity, concomitant CHD and frequent VE, and the use of 3 and 4 antihypertensive drugs compared to 2, and in cases of use of thiazide/thiazide-like diuretics, antiplatelet drugs, and statins.