[Involuntary weight loss]

Involuntary weight loss is a clinical situation with unknown incidence, significance and prognosis. We present a retrospective study of 68 patients hospitalized due to involuntary weight loss. The most frequent individual cause was neoplasia; however, globally, non-neoplastic causes were most frequent. None of the symptoms was significantly associated to the diagnosis of a neoplastic or non-neoplastic disease. The mean age of the patients with neoplasia (71.36 +/- 17.19) differed from the mean age of the patients without neoplasia (63.39 +/- 17.19 years) (p < 0.05). The patients with neoplastic and infectious diseases needed a higher number of analysis than the other patients, being the most valuable data the presence of anemia, cholestasis and determination of thyroid hormones. The most useful evaluations were clinical and endoscopical assessments, thoracic radiography and abdominal echography.