The following symptoms and complaints may indicate cachexia (emaciation):
Leading symptoms
- Weight loss
- Loss of muscle mass/reduced muscle mass, especially noticeable on the temples and upper arms
- Paleness
- Decreased efficiency
Note: Cachexia can occur on overweight patients!
Associated symptoms
- Alopecia (hair loss)
- Anemia (anemia)
- Bitot spots – whitish spots on the cornea caused by vitamin A deficiency.
- Cheilosis – painful redness and swelling of the lips with tearing.
- Dermatitis (inflammatory skin disease).
- Ecchymoses – small-area, patchy skin bleeding.
- Misorient
- Blotchy skin drawing
- Gait disorder
- Memory lapses
- Generalized edema (water retention all over the body).
- Gingivitis (bleeding gums)
- Glossitis (inflammation of the tongue)
- Skin bleeding
- Cardiac arrhythmias
- Hyperpigmentation
- Keratosis pilaris (“friction skin“) – a cornification disorder.
- Lack of concentration
- Night blindness
- Nystagmus – rapid involuntary movements of the pupils.
- Pellagra – vitamin B3 deficiency disease (symptoms: Diarrhea (diarrhea), dermatitis (inflammatory skin disease) and dementia).
- Perifollicular hemorrhage – hemorrhage around the hair follicle.
- Peripheral neuropathy – disease of the nerves which carry information between the central nervous system and the muscles (symptoms: tingling sensation, pain but also paralysis).
- Peripheral edema – water retention, especially in the lower legs.
- Cracks in the fingernails
- Osteoporosis (bone loss)
- Seborrhea “sebaceous flow” from Latin sebum: sebum and Gr. “ροή”: flow) – overproduction of skin oils by the sebaceous glands.
- Stomatitis (inflammation of the oral mucosa).
- Loss of vibratory sensation and sense of position.
- Decreased sense of taste
Warning signs (red flags)
- Cachexia of unclear etiology (in the sense of preclinical tumor cachexia, i.e., without evidence of tumor) → think: pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (increase in plasma branched-chain amino acids: valine, leucine, and isoleucine 2 to 5 years before diagnosis)
