In this study, we evaluated the prognostic value of plasma galectin-3 levels in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and chronic heart failure (HF) and selected 261 CHD patients who were consecutively admitted to our hospital. The enrolled chronic HF patients included HF patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Patients without HF served as the control group. Galectin-3 and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels were determined and the primary endpoint was the composite of all-cause mortality and rehospitalization with 12-month follow-up. Plasma galectin-3 levels were higher in HF patients compared with non-HF patients (P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses for diagnosis of HF showed that galectin-3 had the greatest area under the curve (AUC) of 0.756 (P < 0.001), with an optimal cutoff of 10.8 ng/mL, yielding a sensitivity of 81.7% and a specificity of 61.7%. Follow-up ROC analyses of galectin-3 for outcome prediction showed an optimal cutoff of 17.8 ng/ mL, yielding a sensitivity of 97.3% and a specificity of 77.6%. Galectin-3 yielded an AUC of 0.899 (P < 0.001), whereas the AUC of BNP was 0.633 (P = 0.022). Galectin-3 led to an AUC of 0.931 (P < 0.001) for HFpEF and an AUC of 0.882 (P < 0.001) for HFrEF. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that galectin-3 was an independent prognostic predictor for chronic HF, especially for HFpEF patients (RR: 1.231, 95% CI: 1.066-1.442). In summary, plasma galectin-3 levels were increased in CHD HF patients and were an independent predictor of all-cause mortality and rehospitalization. In HFpEF patients galectin-3 levels correlated stronger with outcomes than in HFrEF patients.