Wasting Syndrome

Wasting syndrome

A progressive loss of weight and muscle tissue caused by the AIDS virus.

Mentioned in: AIDS

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wasting syndrome,

a condition characterized by weight loss associated with chronic fever and diarrhea. Over a period of 1 month, the patient may lose 10% of baseline body weight. In cases of human immunodeficiency virus infection, the malnutrition of wasting exacerbates the condition.

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Wasting Syndrome

A clinical complex associated with chronic renal insufficiency, which is attributed to a combination of poor nutrition, endocrine dysfunction, catabolic stresses—e.g., infection, uremia, dialysis. Wasting is also related to anorexia, and protein catabolism secondary to infection

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wasting

used in a general sense to indicate serious loss of body weight, or locally to indicate atrophy.

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wasting acetonemia

see acetonemia.

chronic wasting disease (CWD)

a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting both farmed and wild elk and deer in certain states of North America. There is concern that it is currently spreading to infect wild cervid populations in states not previously infected. There is no evidence that it can transmit to humans.

postweaning multisystem wasting syndrome (PMWS)

was first described in 1991 in Western Canada and has since become widespread in North America and Europe. Produces slow progressive wasting in postweaned pigs with usually a low attack rate but high case fatality. Clinical signs and postmortem findings vary with some pigs jaundiced, some with diarrhea, but most with grossly enlarged inguinal lymph nodes. Respiratory signs are often associated with underlying interstitial pneumonia and pulmonary edema. The cause is uncertain, but caused at least in part by porcine circovirus 2 which is isolated from affected pigs usually in association with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Clinical disease is more common in high health herds, but pigs are often infected without showing clinical disease. Cases of porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS) are often seen in herds affected with PMWS. See also porcine dermatitis and neuropathy syndrome.

wasting syndrome

used to describe terminal stages of feline immunodeficiency virus infection; similar to the cachexia associated with neoplasia.

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wasting syndrome

Any clinical complex associated with chronic renal insufficiency, attributed to a combination of poor nutrition, endocrine dysfunction, catabolic stresses–eg, infection, uremia, dialysis; starvation causes death at 66% of ideal body weight. See Starvation.