Konstantinos S. Spargias, Alexandros Anifantakis, Manolis Papadakis, Panagiotis Iakovis, George Chatzigeorgiou, Nikos Koutsogiannis, George Karatasakis, George Athanassopoulos, Athanassios Manginas, Themos Maounis, Dennis V. Cokkinos

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.