Muscle Wasting

'Muscle atrophy' is defined as a decrease in the mass of the muscle; it can be a partial or complete wasting away of muscle. When a muscle atrophies, this leads to muscle weakness, since the ability to exert force is related to mass. Muscle atrophy results from a co-morbidity of several common diseases, including cancer, AIDS, congestive heart failure, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), renal failure, and severe burns; patients who have "cachexia" in these disease settings have a poor prognosis. Moreover, starvation eventually leads to muscle atrophy. Disuse of the muscles will also lead to disuse atrophy while neurogenic atrophy is muscle atrophy that results from damage to the nerve that stimulates the muscle.