This study compared the contractile performance of a canine right atrial trabecula with that of a macroscopically indistinguishable trabecula isolated from the right ventricular apex. The heart was removed from nine mongrel puppies weighing 6-8 kg and placed in Krebs-Ringer's bicarbonate solution. The bathing solution contained only 1.25 mmoles of Ca 2+ and was bubbled with a 95% O 2 -5% CO 2 gas mixture. Each atrial trabecula was specially selected from the right atrial appendage. Histologically, these trabeculae showed a remarkable longitudinal orientation of the fibers. At L max (the length of the muscle at which developed tension was maximum) under identical conditions of temperature, rate of stimulation, ionic milieu, pH, and O 2 and CO 2 supply, right atrial trabeculae achieved the same developed and total tensions but in a much shorter time than did ventricular trabeculae. In both muscle groups the maximum developed tension averaged about 2.5 g/mm 2 . Since L o (expressed as a fraction of L max ) was less in atrial muscle than it was in ventricular muscle, we concluded that atrial muscle can be stretched considerably more than can ventricular muscle before optimum length is reached. At any given initial muscle length, the maximum of tension rise for atrial trabeculae amounted to at least twice that for ventricular trabeculae. At any given load up to 1.5 g/mm 2 , the maximum velocity of shortening of an atrial trabecula was about three to four times that of a ventricular trabecula. These results collectively indicate that the contractile performance of the right atrial muscle is in many respects superior to that of the right ventricle, at least under the conditions of these experiments.• The working myocardial cells of the cardiac atria differ morphologically from those of the ventricles (1-14). Atrial myocytes are smaller, branch less often, have fewer if any transverse tubules, and contain specific granules that are not found in ventricular myocytes. There are also significant differences between the pharmacological responses of atrial and ventricular muscles (15,16). Whereas abundant information is available about the mechanical behavior of ventricular myocardium (15-23), much less is known about atrial myocardial performance, and conflicting results have been reported (15,16,24). Differences in the reported results may be due in part to considerable species variability (15, 16) and in part to the fact that published accounts have often failed to emphasize how the results were obtained under significantly different experimental conditions (15, 16). Although dogs are among the most frequently used animals in the experimental cardiovascular laboratory, we can find no report comparing the mechanical properties of canine right atrial and right ventricular trabeculae. This work was supported by U. S. Public Health Service Grant HL 11,310 from the National Heart and Lung Institute and by MIRU Contract 4367-1441.Received March 10, 1975. Accepted for publication September 12, 1975. The present study...