New heart failure drug trial aims to ease breathing and save lives

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Adult patients (age \>18 years) * Both male and female sex * Having left ventricular dysfunction, evidenced by a left ventricular ejection fraction \<40% within the prior 12 months * Hospitalized for the treatment of ADHF * Remained dyspneic at rest despite treatment with intravenous diuretics (NYHA class IV) * Patients might have received intravenous vasodilators and/or positive inotropic drugs (except amrinone and milrinone), but the infusion rates of these drugs must have remained constant for at least 2 h before entry into the study. Exclusion Criteria: * History of invasive cardiac procedure * Cardiac surgery during lifetime within 3 months prior to screening * Cardiac revascularization within 3 months prior to screening * Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation within 3 months prior to screening * A cardioversion within 4 h prior to screening, or * Cardiac re-synchronization procedure within 30 days prior to screening) * Rhythm disorders (e.g. earlier Torsades de Pointes, increased heart rate) * Severe ventricular outflow obstruction * Angina within 6 h prior to screening * Hypotension (a systolic blood pressure \<90 mmHg) \[Can be included after resuscitation, when SBP will be \>90 mmHg by noradrenaline infusion\] * Uncorrected hypokalemia * CNS disease (e.g. stroke, TIA) * Respiratory (e.g. COPD exacerbation requiring systematic steroids or intubation) * Renal insufficiency (e.g. increased serum creatinine clearance rate \<15 mL/min) * Hepatic impairment (e.g. significant increase in liver enzymes, \>5x the upper limit of normal) * Decompensation from active infection eg, sepsis * Acute bleeding * Patient required blood transfusion or Severe anemia (hemoglobin \<8 g/l) * Serum potassium concentration \<3.5 or \>5.4 mmol/l * Use of amrinone and milrinone prior to screening * A history of hypersensitivity to levosimendan or any of the excipients * Intubated or otherwise unable to communicate * Pregnancy * Post partum cardiomyopathy * Previous participation in a clinical trial with any experimental treatment within the last 30 days