Preliminary clinical experience with the repetitive administration of levosimendan in patients with end-stage heart failure.

We present our preliminary clinical experience with the initial and repetitive administration of the novel inotropic agent levosimendan in a cohort of 20 patients with end-stage heart failure who were acutely decompensated or whose symptoms were refractory to the usual pharmacological treatments thus necessitating hospitalization. Repetitive levosimendan infusions were administered to 9 patients (minimum 2, maximum 8 pulses). The effects of this therapy on the symptomatic status, vital signs, hemodynamic performance and clinical outcomes are discussed.