Keng BMH, Gao F, Ewe SH, et al. - Researchers assessed the utility of galectin-3 (Gal-3) levels for the estimation of the odds of myocardial dysfunction in ageing cohorts, ‘upstream’ before the clinical disease. In this study, concurrent evaluations of cardiovascular structure and function, with measurements of circulating Gal-3 were performed in 475 asymptomatic individuals (mean age 68 ± 12 years, 231 women). Myocardial dysfunction was present in 222 (47%) individuals. Following multivariable adjustments, impaired myocardial relaxation was observed in correlation with Gal-3, age, BMI, and heart rate. Two-fold increased odds of myocardial dysfunction were observed among asymptomatic community-dwelling elderly adults in correlation with the highest quartile of Gal-3 vs the lowest quartile of Gal-3. A possible role of Gal-3 as an ‘upstream’ biomarker in estimating odds of myocardial ageing before clinical disease was suggested.