About the Authors

Megan D. Montgomery

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Trevor Chan

Current address: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Philip M. Swigart

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Bat-erdene Myagmar

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Rajesh Dash

Current address: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Paul C. Simpson

paul.simpson@ucsf.edu

Affiliations Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Competing Interests

UCSF owns a patent with PCS as inventor for use of A61603 in heart failure, and PCS is involved in a company to pursue this. The indicated patent owned by UCSF is "Method of treatment using alpha-1-adrenergic agonist compounds" (inventor Paul C. Simpson) (allowed #8324178, 2009). This patent has not resulted in any company, product, employment, etc. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: MDM TC RD PCS. Formal analysis: MDM TC PS RD PCS. Funding acquisition: PCS. Investigation: MDM TC PS BM RD. Methodology: MDM TC PS BM RD PCS. Project administration: PCS. Resources: PCS. Supervision: PCS. Validation: MDM TC PS RD PCS. Visualization: MDM PCS. Writing – original draft: MDM PCS. Writing – review & editing: MDM TC PS PCS.