Extracorporeal life support provides perfusion for patients with heart failure to allow time for recovery, function as a bridge for patients to heart transplantation, or serve as destination therapy for long term mechanical device support. Several biomarkers have been employed in attempt to predict these outcomes, but it remains to be determined which are suitable to guide clinical practice relevant to extracorporeal life support. Galectin-3 and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity-2 (sST2) are two of the more promising candidates with the greatest supporting evidence. In this review, we address the similarities and differences between galectin-3 and sST2 for prognostic prediction in adults and children with heart failure requiring extracorporeal life support and highlight the significant lack of progress in pediatric biomarker discovery and utilization.
Keywords: ECMO; VAD; extracorporeal life support; galectin-3; heart failure; mechanical circulatory support; sST2.