Malnutrition and the heart.

Earlier concepts that the heart is spared in malnutrition have been shown to be incorrect. Inadequate intake of protein and energy results in proportional loss of skeletal and myocardial muscle. As myocardial mass decreases, so does the ability to generate cardiac output; however, various compensatory factors come into play. Nutritional supplementation for malnourished patients reverses the compensatory factors and may increase the short-term potential for heart failure. Severe cardiac debility results in poor nutrition, which may in turn produce unsuspected but clinically significant myocardial atrophy. Nutritional support may play a role in improving cardiac function in selected patients with cardiac cachexia who are being prepared for cardiac surgery and in patients with rapid weight loss who are at risk for sudden death due to arrhythmias. Malnutrition is common in hospitalized patients, and many patients in hospital now receive nutritional supplementation; both facts have important cardiac implications.