Chronically inhaled salmeterol improves pulmonary function in heart failure.

Inhaled beta-agonists are commonly prescribed for the symptoms of exercise intolerance in heart failure despite a paucity of data regarding their safety and efficacy. This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled 14-day cross-over study to determine if chronic inhaled salmeterol therapy 84 microg every 12 hours improved pulmonary function without augmentation of neurohormonal systems or ventricular ectopy in 8 symptomatic heart failure subjects with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <40% and FEV1