BACKGROUND Ghrelin is a novel growth hormone-releasing peptide that also induces vasodilation, inhibits sympathetic nerve activity, and stimulates feeding through growth hormone-independent mechanisms. We investigated the effects of ghrelin on left ventricular (LV) function, exercise capacity, and muscle wasting in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). METHODS AND RESULTS Human synthetic...

a debilitating muscle-and fat-wasting condition that is associated with multiple diseases, including cancer, diabetes, AIDS and tuberculosis, as well as injuries. Estimates reveal that up to 80% of all cancer patients suffer from cachexia, which not only leads to a decrease in the quality of life due to impaired mobility but also accounts directly for ~20% of cancer-related deaths (Fearon, 2008...

The three conventional anthropometric indicators of childhood undernutrition are stunting (low height-for-age), underweight (low weight-for-age) and wasting (low weight-for-height). Recently a new composite index, namely the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) has been proposed and utilised to study childhood undernutrition. In this paper, we have attempted to construct three new i...

BACKGROUND A double burden of both under- and over-nutrition exists among South African children. AIM To describe associations between nutritional statuses and health-related fitness test performances. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Height and weight of 10 285 children (6-13 years; n = 5604 boys and 4681 girls) were measured and used to calculate body mass index (BMI) and prevalence of overweight and...

INTRODUCTION It is unknown whether the criteria used to define Protein-energy wasting (PEW) syndrome in dialysis patients reflect protein or energy wasting in the general and moderate CKD populations. METHODS In 11,834 participants in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, individual PEW syndrome criteria and the number of PEW syndrome categories were related to lean ...

Myostatin, a member of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily, is a genetic determinant of skeletal muscle growth. Mice and cattle with inactivating mutations of myostatin have marked muscle hypertrophy. However, it is not known whether myostatin regulates skeletal muscle growth in adult men and whether increased myostatin expression contributes to wasting in chronic illness. We examin...

BACKGROUND Muscle wasting prevails in numerous diseases (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, COPD,…) and increases healthcare costs. A major clinical issue is to devise new strategies preventing muscle wasting. We hypothesized that 8-week docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation prior to fasting may preserve muscle mass in vivo. METHODS Six-week-old C57BL/6 mice were fed a DH...

objective: to assess the overall nutritional status of santal tribal preschool children of paschim medinipur district, west bengal, india.   methods: a cross sectional study was conducted from february 2012 to september, 2012 in the santal tribal community of rural area of paschim medinipur district, west bengal. the study children were selected multi stage cluster sampling method. the level of...

Dear Editor, The key feature of disease-associated malnutrition, or cachexia, is muscle wasting [1]. However, an efficient tool for the assessment of skeletal muscularity in daily practice is not available yet [2]. We recently demonstrated that left ventricular mass (LVM) as measured by echocardiography reflects nutritional status in patients with systemic sclerosis [3]. Similarly to skeletal m...