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Background-Coronary blood flow peaks in diastole when aortic blood pressure has fallen. Current models fail to completely explain this phenomenon. We present a new approach-using wave intensity analysis-to explain this phenomenon in normal subjects and to evaluate the effects of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Method and Results-We measured simultaneous pressure and Doppler velocity with intracoronary wires in the left main stem, left anterior descending, and circumflex arteries of 20 subjects after a normal coronary arteriogram. Wave intensity analysis was used to identify and quantify individual pressure and velocity waves within the coronary artery circulation.A consistent pattern of 6 predominating waves was identified. Ninety-four percent of wave energy, accelerating blood forward along the coronary artery, came from 2 waves: first a pushing wave caused by left ventricular ejection-the dominant forward-traveling pushing wave; and later a suction wave caused by relief of myocardial microcirculatory compression-the dominant backward-traveling suction wave. The dominant backward-traveling suction wave (18.2Ϯ13.7ϫ10 3 W m Ϫ2 s

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