To completely obtain all the data necessary for this project, it would be expected to take 5 years. This is based on the goal of initially collecting additional data to add to the preliminary data of a recent American Heart Association (AHA) grant submission and then submitting the project for an NIH grant. Based on power calculations and previous experience using these experimental measures, it will take approximately 30 heart failure patients to determine the influence of statins on sympathetic nerve activity. This will permit statistical comparisons and takes into account the technical difficulties of obtaining repeat quality sympathetic nerve recordings in the same patient as well as the data collection necessary to determine the potential contribution of baroreflex-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Healthy control subjects matched to each HF patients for age, sex, and body mass index, all of which are known factors that influence resting SNA, will also be studied. These studies are important for comparison to determine whether these statin-induced reductions in SNA specific to HF or a general overall effect of statin therapy. It is anticipated that identifying patients not already on statin therapy may take some time as this therapy is standard in this patients group. We chose Simvastatin for our studies because this was the statin of choice in the pacing-induced HF rabbit studies that have reported a normalization of resting SNA after statin therapy. We anticipate that future studies identifying the efficacy of different statins in reducing SNA, the impact of different dosages, and different durations of treatment will be warranted.