Cardiac cachexia in cats with congestive heart failure | VETgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

In this VETgirl online veterinary CE podcast, we review cardiac cachexia in cats with congestive heart failure (CHF) - does it affect their prognosis and outcome? Cachexia, or bodily wasting in the form of muscle and weight loss, is a common systemic effect of numerous chronic diseases, including CHF. Sarcopenia refers to muscle loss associated with aging in the absence of an overt disease state. Cachexia negatively impacts patient quality of life and survival. Uniformly accepted definitions to identify cachexia and sarcopenia are lacking, and many variations in definition exist. The limited data evaluating cardiac cachexia in dogs and cats suggests a prevalence of 48-69%. Weight loss is a generally accepted criterion for determination of the presence of cachexia, which may result in underdiagnosis of cachexia in the early stages because muscle loss may precede loss in actual body weight. In cardiac cachexia, this lag in loss of body weight may be even more likely due to fluid retention, which may offset detectable loss of tissue weight. In humans, the loss of muscle itself is correlated with the aforementioned reductions in vigor and quality of life, not weight loss.