Introduction: Despitecardiac cachexia being a prevalent health problem among heart failure (HF) patients, it has been given little attention by nursing researchers. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a systematic review that investigates cardiac cachexia among patients with HF.
Methodology: A systematic review will be performed according to the PRISMA guidelines to assess the findings of twelve selected studies which meet the inclusion criteria of the systematic review research. The selected articles were published between 2000 and 2020 across three databases: PubMed, CINAHL, and MEDLINE.
Results: In comparison to cancer cachexia, cardiac cachexia has been insufficiently studied and is poorly understood. No definitive diagnostic method for cardiac cachexia has been identified in the literature. Age, smoking, and hypertension have been reported to be risk factors for cardiac cachexia. Cardiac cachexia has been significantly associated with lethal structural changes in the heart and has been measured using anthropometric measures and laboratory biomarkers. A combination of pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments has been effectively implemented to manage cardiac cachexia.
Conclusion: A focused multidisciplinary approachthat takes culture into consideration is required to set a variety of assessment and interventional strategies for the early detection and proper management of cardiac cachexia.
Keywords: assessment; cardiac cachexia; culture; detection; multidisciplinary approach; nursing; systematic review.
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