Galectin-3 predicts response to statin therapy in the Controlled Rosuvastatin Multinational Trial in Heart Failure (CORONA)

To investigate whether plasma galectin-3, a mediator of fibrogenesis, can identify patients with chronic heart failure (HF) for whom statins are effective.

Patients with ischaemic systolic HF enrolled in the Controlled Rosuvastatin Multinational Trial in Heart Failure (CORONA) were randomly assigned to 10 mg/day of rosuvastatin or placebo. Galectin-3 was measured in plasma. The primary outcome was cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Of 1492 patients, 411 had a primary event during a median follow-up of 32.8 months. There was an interaction between baseline galectin-3 and rosuvastatin on the primary endpoint (P-value for interaction = 0.036). Among patients with below the median plasma concentrations of galectin-3 (≤19.0 ng/mL), those assigned to rosuvastatin had a lower primary event rate [hazard ratio (HR) 0.65; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.46–0.92; P= 0.014], lower total mortality (HR 0.70; 95% CI, 0.50–0.98; P= 0.038), and lower event rate of all-cause mortality and HF hospitalizations (HR 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54–0.98; P= 0.017) compared with placebo, but no benefit was observed in patients with higher levels of galectin-3. The combination of concurrently low concentrations of galectin-3 and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (<102.7 pmol/L) identified patients with a large benefit with rosuvastatin (HR 0.33; 95% CI, 0.16–0.67; P= 0.002).

Patients with systolic HF of ischaemic aetiology who have galectin-3 values <19.0 ng/mL may benefit from rosuvastatin treatment. However, the data from this post hoc analysis should be interpreted with caution since the overall results of the CORONA study did not show a significant effect on the primary endpoint.