Cachexia

Under cachexia (as portmanteau word from gr κακός ( kakos ) 'bad' and ἕξις ( hexis ), state ' ) refers to a morbid, very severe emaciation. The Medical Service of the Health Insurance (MDK ) understands cachexia a body mass index of less than 18 in the issued by the Social Medical Expert Group Kodierempfehlung No. 16 of MDK defined cachexia with a BMI below 18.5 kg / m².

Causes

Possible causes are:

• Chronic diseases, such as cancer ( → cachexia ), AIDS, COPD, rheumatoid arthritis (rheumatoid cachexia ), type I diabetes, African sleeping sickness (infection with Trypanosoma brucei )
• Food deprivation, malnutrition ( malnutrition, malnutrition, kwashiorkor )
• Eating disorders ( bulimia, anorexia) occur mainly in young women, for their explanation psychological, social, and increasingly also biological factors are being cultivated.
• Persistent diseases of the gastrointestinal tract ( enteritis, indigestion ) or the pancreas (mainly chronic pancreatitis ) can cause a nutrient deficiency due to lack of splitting in or lack of absorption from the intestine ( malabsorption, maldigestion, malabsorption ).
• Chronic heart failure (cardiac cachexia )
• Chronic lung disease with respiratory failure (pulmonary cachexia )
• Of aging (senile cachexia )

Follow

In contrast to inanition ( emaciation ) not only the storage of fat depots, but also the structural fat and muscles are broken down in the cachexia. The bone marrow is transformed into gelatinous marrow, even when other organs leads to atrophy and functional loss. Life-threatening, the condition when the heart muscle is under attack. Cachexia soon thus leads to irreversible ( irreversible ) changes, and ultimately death ( " terminal cachexia " = end stage ).

Therapy

Treatment consists of a diet treatment and elimination of the triggering cause, as far as this is treatable.