Our survival is governed by the "force of mortality" - the wonderfully archaic expression for the chance of dying each year.

BBC: Will I live longer than my cat?

The data show an increase in mortality for patients on Natrecor that may be due to chance, and an increase in kidney chemicalsthat was statistically significant.

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"The authors themselves said the mortality trends shown in the meta-analysis could be due to chance, " says Wolfe.

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Simdax, which is given in the hospital when patients are extremely sick, never reduced mortality by a large enough margin compared with dobutamine to be sure the results weren't due to chance, but there was a consistent trend toward a benefit.

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