The cachexia assessment scale: development and psychometric properties

Cardiac cachexia among patients with chronic heart failure: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Despitecardiac cachexia being a prevalent health problem among heart failure (HF) patients, it has been given little attention by nursing researchers. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a systematic review that investigates cardiac cachexia among patients with HF.

METHODOLOGY

A systematic review will be performed according to the PRISMA guidelines to assess the findings of twelve selected studies which meet the inclusion criteria of the systematic review research. The selected articles were published between 2000 and 2020 across three databases: PubMed, CINAHL, and MEDLINE.

RESULTS

In comparison to cancer cachexia, cardiac cachexia has been insufficiently studied and is poorly understood. No definitive diagnostic method for cardiac cachexia has been identified in the literature. Age, smoking, and hypertension have been reported to be risk factors for cardiac cachexia. Cardiac cachexia has been significantly associated with lethal structural changes in the heart and has been measured using anthropometric measures and laboratory biomarkers. A combination of pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments has been effectively implemented to manage cardiac cachexia.

CONCLUSION

A focused multidisciplinary approachthat takes culture into consideration is required to set a variety of assessment and interventional strategies for the early detection and proper management of cardiac cachexia.

Validation of the CAchexia SCOre (CASCO). Staging Cancer Patients: The Use of miniCASCO as a Simplified Tool

The CAchexia SCOre (CASCO) was described as a tool for the staging of cachectic cancer patients. The aim of this study is to show the metric properties of CASCO in order to classify cachectic cancer patients into three different groups, which are associated with a numerical scoring. The final aim was to clinically validate CASCO for its use in the classification of cachectic cancer patients in clinical practice. We carried out a case -control study that enrolled prospectively 186 cancer patients and 95 age-matched controls. The score includes five components: (1) body weight loss and composition, (2) inflammation/metabolic disturbances/immunosuppression, (3) physical performance, (4) anorexia, and (5) quality of life. The present study provides clinical validation for the use of the score. In order to show the metric properties of CASCO, three different groups of cachectic cancer patients were established according to the results obtained with the statistical approach used: mild cachexia (15 ≤ × ≤ 28), moderate cachexia (29 ≤ × ≤ 46), and severe cachexia (47 ≤ × ≤ 100). In addition, a simplified version of CASCO, MiniCASCO (MCASCO), was also presented and it contributes as a valid and easy-to-use tool for cachexia staging. Significant statistically correlations were found between CASCO and other validated indexes such as Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the subjective diagnosis of cachexia by specialized oncologists. A very significant estimated correlation between CASCO and MCASCO was found that suggests that MCASCO might constitute an easy and valid tool for the staging of the cachectic cancer patients. CASCO and MCASCO provide a new tool for the quantitative staging of cachectic cancer patients with a clear advantage over previous classifications.