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Intravenous infusion of nesiritide, a brain (B-type) natriuretic peptide, has beneficial hemodynamic effects in patients with decompensated congestive heart failure. We investigated the clinical use of nesiritide in such patients.

Patients hospitalized because of symptomatic congestive heart failure were enrolled in either an efficacy trial or a comparative trial. In the efficacy trial, which required the placement of a Swan–Ganz catheter, 127 patients with a pulmonary-capillary wedge pressure of 18 mm Hg or higher and a cardiac index of 2.7 liters per minute per square meter of body-surface area or less were randomly assigned to double-blind treatment with placebo or nesiritide (infused at a rate of 0.015 or 0.030 μg per kilogram of body weight per minute) for six hours. In the comparative trial, which did not require hemodynamic monitoring, 305 patients were randomly assigned to open-label …