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Quantification of Mouse Heart Left Ventricular Function, Myocardial Strain, and Hemodynamic Forces by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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Wasting of the left ventricle in patients with cardiac cachexia: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study

Viorel G Florea1, James Moon, Dudley J Pennell

  • 1Department of Clinical Cardiology, Imperial College of Science, National Heart and Lung Institute, Dovehouse Street, London SW3 6LY, UK.

International Journal of Cardiology
|September 1, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Cardiac cachexia in chronic heart failure (CHF) leads to a decrease in left ventricular (LV) mass. This study confirms LV wasting in CHF patients with body wasting.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Biomedical Imaging

Background:

  • The
  • cachectic heart
  • describes pathological cardiac changes in chronic heart failure (CHF) with body wasting (cardiac cachexia).
  • Previous in vivo studies lacked data on cardiac dimension changes over time in these patients.
  • Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) offers reproducible and sensitive measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate longitudinal changes in left ventricular (LV) mass and dimensions in CHF patients with cardiac cachexia.
  • To compare these changes with CHF patients without cachexia.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) to assess LV volumes and mass at baseline and follow-up (mean 15 months).
  • Studied nine CHF patients with cardiac cachexia and 28 matched CHF controls without cachexia.

Main Results:

  • Baseline LV mass and volumes did not differ significantly between cachectic and non-cachectic CHF groups.
  • Over follow-up, LV mass significantly decreased in cachectic patients (-16 g, P<0.05).
  • Non-cachectic CHF patients showed a trend towards increased LV mass (+7 g, P=0.12), with a significant group difference in change over time (P=0.010).

Conclusions:

  • The direction of change in LV mass over time differs between CHF patients with and without cachexia.
  • Cardiac cachexia is associated with a significant decrease in LV mass.
  • This study provides in vivo evidence of left ventricular wasting in CHF patients experiencing general body wasting.
Abstract

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