von Ballmoos MW, et al. - In 1,498 patients who had coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and/or valve surgery as part of the Northern New England Biomarker Study between 2004 and 2007, researchers assessed the link between preoperative levels of circulating Galectin-3 (Gal-3) and postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). They evaluated the predictive ability of Gal-3 terciles and AKI occurrence and severity by using univariate and multinomial logistic regression. Findings demonstrated that a significantly improved prediction of postoperative AKI was enabled by elevated preoperative Gal-3 levels beyond existing clinical models. Furthermore, elevated preoperative Gal-3 levels could be used to supplement risk information for patients at the highest risk of developing AKI and AKI severity post-cardiac surgery.