The Pathogenesis of Cardiac Cachexia

Abstract

THE striking degree of malnutrition that may accompany chronic congestive heart failure has been termed cardiac cachexia. Hippocrates was perhaps the first to record this association between dropsy and cachexia: "The flesh is consumed and becomes water ... the abdomen fills with water; the feet and legs swell; the shoulders, clavicles, chest, and thighs melt away."1 The mechanisms that may underlie the development of cardiac cachexia have not been defined precisely. Although considerable knowledge has been gathered regarding the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure, it remains difficult to synthesize, from the many fragments of specialized information that are available, a . . .