Randomized, double-blind, multicenter. Patients were assigned to standard therapy plus the addition of a beta-blocker (bucindolol) versus a placebo. The primary endpoint was total mortality. A radionuclide ventriculogram was performed within 60 days of randomization. History, physical examination, clinical laboratory studies, chest x-ray, electrocardiogram, and plasma norepinephrine levels were obtained within 14 days of randomization. Patients were stratified by hospital, congestive heart failure etiology, ejection fraction, and gender, and were assigned to a treatment group by an adaptive balancing scheme ("biased coin" randomization). Patients were randomized to either placebo plus standard congestive heart failure treatment or to the beta-blocker plus standard congestive heart failure treatment and followed for a minimum of 18 months. The over three year recruitment period began in May 1995 at the first 35 sites. An additional 55 sites began recruitment on August 14, 1995. Recruitment ended in December, 1998 with the enrollment of 2,708 patients.