It is well known that left ventricular regional contraction abnormality (hypokinesis: hypo) occurs during myocardial ischemia. However, it is uncertain whether left ventricular asynchronous contraction (asynchrony) is an index of myocardial ischemia. To validate asynchrony as an index of myocardial ischemia, isoproterenol infusion stress (ISP) cardiac blood-pool scintigraphy (RI angiography) was performed in patients with ischemic heart disease. The subjects were classified into 2 groups: 1) 15 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 2) 8 patients with "normal" coronary arteries (NC). None had any electrical ventricular conduction disturbance. ISP was administered with increasing doses of 0.02, 0.04, 0.08 microgram/kg/min at 3-min intervals, and it was terminated in the event of angina, significant ST changes or target heart rate. Symptom-limited ergometer exercise testing (EX) was also administered in 14 patients. Regional decrease in amplitude and phase delay identified by phase analysis was diagnosed as hypo and asynchrony, respectively. ISP myocardial scintigraphy was also performed in 15 patients. Results were as follows: ISP and EX induced asynchrony in 14 (93%) and 13 patients (93%), respectively, while, did hypo in 4 (27%) and 9 (64%), respectively. Ten (67%) of 15 patients had asynchrony without hypo in ISP; whereas, only 4 (28%) of 14 patients did in EX. ISP-induced asynchrony occurred in one of 8 patients with NC. The locations of ISP-induced asynchrony and those of EX-induced asynchrony were concordant in 11 (79%) of 14 patients. Asynchrony on the ISP RI angiogram was observed at the same sites of redistribution on the ISP myocardial scintigram. We concluded that asynchrony itself is a sensitive and specific index of myocardial ischemia.