Subject matter of the present invention is a method for a) diagnosing congestion or assessing or monitoring the extent of congestion in a subject or, b) predicting or determining or monitoring need of therapy or intervention or predicting or determining or monitoring the success of a therapy or intervention of congestion or guiding a therapy or intervention in a subject or, c) predicting decongestion or residual congestion after therapy or intervention of congestion in a subject or, d) assessing decongestion or residual congestion after therapy or intervention of congestion in a subject or, e) assessing the decision on hospital discharge of a subject, wherein said subject is subject having acute heart failure that is either new-onset AHF or acute decompensated HF or acute decompensated chronic HF or wherein said subject is a subject having chronic heart failure with worsening signs/symptoms of chronic heart failure and wherein Pro-Adrenomedullin or fragments thereof of at least 5 amino acids is used as an early surrogate marker for congestion.