Cachexia: prevalence and impact in medicine

Cachexia is a progressive deterioration of body habitus associated with certain chronic diseases (e.g., cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure, and chronic kidney disease). The aim of this article is to describe the prevalence and impact of cachexia (and precachexia) in such patients.Owing to the wide spectrum of clinical presentation and lack of an 'all-inclusive' definition, it is difficult to estimate the true...