Establishing a clinical phenotype for cachexia in end stage kidney disease - study protocol.

Cachexia is a debilitating condition associated with an extremely poor outcome. Definitions of cachexia in chronic illnesses are required to reflect specific nuances associated with each disease. These discrete cachexia definitions help with the precision of research and the subsequent clinical interventions to improve outcomes for patients suffering from cachexia. The absence of a definition for cachexia in an ESKD population makes it particularly difficult to study the incidence of cachexia or potential treatments, as there are no standardised inclusion criteria for patients with ESKD who have cachexia. Outcomes from this study will provide much needed data to inform development and testing of potential treatment modalities, aimed at enhancing current clinical practice, policy and education.