A nurse notes an increased heart rate in a patient with heart failure. Which compensatory mechanism is likely at play?

A. Natriuretic peptides promote vasodilation and diuresis but do not directly increase heart rate. B. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and contractility to maintain cardiac output in heart failure. C. Cardiac fibrosis is a pathological change, not a compensatory mechanism causing increased heart rate. D. The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is usually activated, not inhibited, in heart failure.