Comparison of sarcopenia and cachexia in men with chronic heart failure: results from the Studies Investigating Co‐morbidities Aggravating Heart Failure (SICA‐HF)

Abstract

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01872299.

Muscle wasting and sarcopenia in heart failure: a brief overview of the current literature

“…6 Sarcopenia, on the other hand, was first identified as a co-morbidity in patients with HF in 2013. 11 Treating wasting in patients with HF remains challenging. It was also in 2016 that sarcopenia received an International Classification of Diseases code, which was perceived as a major step forward in recognizing sarcopenia as a disease.…”

November 2018 at a glance: from prediction of heart failure in asymptomatic subjects to advanced chronic heart failure

“…Muscle strength, peak oxygen uptake, distance in the 6‐minute walk test and quality of life were lowest in the sarcopenia + cachexia group. The study shows the independent role of sarcopenia vs. weight loss in HF …”

“…Emami et al 10 assessed the role of sarcopenia, compared with cachexia, in ambulatory HF patients. Patients with sarcopenia had lower strength and exercise capacity than both the no wasting and the cachectic HF group.…”

Muscling up to improve heart failure prognosis

“…In this issue of the Journal, Emami and colleagues performed an elegant cross‐sectional analysis in 207 male patients with HF enrolled in the SICA‐HF study investigating the role of sarcopenia, cachexia and the combination of the two, on CRF, muscle strength, quality of life (QoL) and other HF metrics. Although limited by the small sample size, lack of female patients, and the majority of patients presenting with HF with a left ventricular ejection fraction ≤40%, the study provided important data to inform potential future therapeutic targets for clinical trials.…”

“…Due to the limited sample size, the study by Emami and colleagues could not address the effects of sarcopenia and/or cachexia and of specific body composition compartments on clinical outcomes (i.e. HF‐related hospitalizations, cardiovascular mortality, all‐cause mortality), calling for further larger studies with longer follow‐up to better assess the impact of body composition, including the impact of sarcopenia and cachexia, on subsequent prognosis.…”