Cardiac cachexia in cats with congestive heart failure: Prevalence and clinical, laboratory, and survival findings

Abstract

Background: Cardiac cachexia is common in people and dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF). However, the prevalence and effects of cardiac cachexia in cats are unknown. Objectives:To determine the prevalence of cachexia and its associations with clinical laboratory and survival data in cats with CHF.Animals: One hundred twenty-five cats with CHF.Methods: Medical records of cats evaluated during a 40-month period were retrospectively reviewed to identify cats with cardiac cachexia using 7 different definitions. Clinical, laboratory, and survival data were compared between cats with and without cachexia.Results: Prevalence of cachexia ranged from 0 to 66.7% for the 7 definitions, with a prevalence of 41.6% using muscle condition score (MCS). Cats with cachexia (determined by MCS) were older (P < .001), more likely to have pleural effusion (P = .003), had significantly higher blood urea nitrogen (P < .001) and neutrophil concentrations (P = .01), and significantly lower body condition score (P < .001), body weights (P < .001), hematocrit (P = .007), and hemoglobin concentrations (P = .009). Survival time for cats with cachexia (determined by MCS) was significantly shorter than for cats without cachexia (P = .03). Cats that were underweight (P = .002) and cats with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) also had shorter survival times (P = .04).Conclusions and Clinical Importance: The association between cachexia and reduced survival time emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing this common problem in cats with CHF.

Falciform fat:femur length ratio provides a novel method for objective postmortem estimation of total body fat in overweight and obese cats

“…Amounts of lean soft tissue may depend on the individual's living conditions, physical activity, and age, and muscle wasting is commonly present in animals suffering from serious disease. 2,8,23 Twenty-four of the 54 examined cats in our study had muscle atrophy, which suggests that muscle atrophy is common in cats presented for postmortem examination. Hence, muscle state is important to take into consideration in tBF estimation using %BF, and suggests that a more robust parameter, such as bone length and bone volumes, is valuable to use rather than lean soft tissue when normalizing amounts of tBF in diseased animals.…”

Monitoring congestive heart failure

“…Cardiac cachexia is characterised by loss of muscle mass, with or without overall weight loss, as a result of decreased energy intake, increased protein catabolism, decreased muscle protein synthesis and increased energy requirements. Cardiac cachexia is associated with decreased survival times in both dogs and cats with CHF (Ineson and others 2019, Santiago and others 2020). Monitoring of appetite, body and muscle condition scores and bodyweight is therefore recommended.…”