The aim of this study was to define normal left ventricular performance at rest and during supine bicycle exercise with equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography in a normal population other than young healthy volunteers. Thirty-one patients (mean age 45 years +/- 9 SD) with chest pain of varying origin and no evidence of heart disease proven by means of noninvasive and invasive techniques were studied. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at rest averaged 0.64 +/- 0.07 SD and increased with peak exercise to 0.73 +/- 0.08 SD (P less than 0.005). Change in LVEF from rest to maximum exercise ranged within 0-0.19. Six patients (19%) failed to augment LVEF with exercise to more than 0.05; none of the patients dropped LVEF during exercise. Multivariate analysis revealed no significant predictors of LVEF response to exercise. However, there was a tendency that resting LVEF and enddiastolic volume index with exercise might influence LVEF response to exercise. Peak left ventricular ejection rate (LVER) at rest averaged 3.3 s-1 +/- 0.6 SD and increased to 5.1 s-1 +/- 1.1 SD (P less than 0.005) with exercise. Peak left ventricular early filling rate (LVFR) was 2.8 s-1 +/- 0.6 SD at rest and was measured 5.5 s-1 +/- 1.3 SD at maximum exercise (P less than 0.005). Left ventricular enddiastolic volume (EDV) did not change significantly from rest to maximum exercise, whereas left ventricular endsystolic volume (ESV) decreased to 79% +/- 19 SD (P less than 0.01) of the value at rest.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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