Randomization and Blinding Eligible patients that signed the informed consent were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive either Levosimendan or placebo. Randomization was centrally conducted and supervised by the CRO. The computer-generated randomization scheme used random permuted blocks stratified per center. Once the patient was allocated to Levosimendan of placebo, the CRO communicated the exact treatment number to the local hospital pharmacy which handed out the treatment to the local investigator at each infusion cycle. Levosimendan and placebo had the same appearance thus the treatment was concealed to both investigators and study patients (double blind).