Copyright
©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Frailty, sarcopenia and cachexia in heart failure patients: Different clinical entities of the same painting
Matteo Beltrami, Massimo Milli, Cardiology Unit, San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, Florence 50142, Italy
Carlo Fumagalli, Cardiomyopathy Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence 50139, Italy
Author contributions: Beltrami M provided the input in writing the paper and performed the majority of the writing; Fumagalli C prepared the figures and tables; Milli M coordinated the writing of the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Matteo Beltrami, MD, Doctor, Postdoc, Cardiology Unit, San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, 3 Via Torregalli, Florence 50142, Italy. beltrami.matteo1@gmail.com
Received: October 20, 2020
Peer-review started: October 20, 2020
First decision: November 16, 2020
Revised: November 25, 2020
Accepted: December 27, 2020
Article in press: December 27, 2020
Published online: January 26, 2021
Peer-review started: October 20, 2020
First decision: November 16, 2020
Revised: November 25, 2020
Accepted: December 27, 2020
Article in press: December 27, 2020
Published online: January 26, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: The last heart failure (HF) guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology dedicate a chapter each for cachexia, sarcopenia and frailty and several studies regarding these topics are coming up. This wealth of information highlights the importance of these co-factors in HF management and are each uniquely relevant to evaluate older patients with HF. It is time to routinely assess cachexia, sarcopenia and frailty that could help in personalized care plan, improve outcomes and reduce hospitalization and institutionalization. However, definitions, pathophysiology and treatment of all these conditions still remain unclear and we briefly summarize the most recent knowledge available in literature.