LAUSR

and rates of longer hospital stay (4). Therefore, I wish to ask the authors why they did not mention about serum sodium levels and cardiac troponin values of patients in baseline characteristics and did not use these parameters in the statistical evaluation, although they possessed the data for these parameters. Further, the presence of edema at admission and the change in weight during hospitalization are major factors influencing the length of hospital stay in patients with heart failure (5). I believe that the aforementioned factors should be considered to verify the predictive value of higher diuretic dosing within the first 72 h on hospital stay in patients with acute heart failure.