Background-Currently, the detection of noncritical coronary stenoses requires some form of stress. We hypothesized that these stenoses can be detected at rest without recourse to stress by assessing adaptive changes that occur distally in the microcirculation. Methods and Results-Phasic changes in myocardial video intensity (VI) were measured at rest with continuous high-mechanical-index (MI) contrast echocardiography in 15 open-chest dogs. Data were acquired at baseline and in the presence of different degrees of noncritical coronary stenosis. In 6 of these dogs, capillary blood volume was also measured at baseline using high-MI intermittent imaging with triggering performed separately at both end diastole and end systole. During continuous high-MI imaging, a significant increase in systolic VI was noted with coronary stenoses that resulted in progressive increases in the systolic/diastolic VI ratio with greater degrees of stenosis (Pϭ0.003), with a mildly quadratic relation noted between the two: yϭ1.3 · 10 Ϫ6 · x 2 ϩ0.01xϩ0.32, PϽ0.001, rϭ0.76, SEEϭ0.14. There was no difference in capillary blood volume between end diastole and end systole at baseline. Conclusions-Capillary blood volume does not change between diastole and systole in vivo. Phasic changes in VI are noted at baseline during high-MI continuous imaging. The systolic component is negligible at baseline but increases with increasing levels of noncritical coronary stenosis because of adaptive changes in the microcirculation distal to the stenosis. Thus, the measurement of phasic changes in myocardial VI has the potential to detect coronary stenosis at rest without recourse to any form of stress. Key Words: stenosis Ⅲ echocardiography Ⅲ blood volume B ecause of autoregulation, coronary blood flow (CBF) remains normal at rest until a coronary stenosis exceeds Ϸ85% in severity. 1,2 In the absence of a prior infarction, therefore, noncritical coronary stenoses cannot be detected by cardiac imaging at rest, and some form of stress is required to induce either regional dysfunction or a perfusion abnormality. The same is true even for electrocardiography.When coronary arterioles dilate in the presence of a noncritical stenosis, their blood volume (aBV) increases. 3,4 A portion of these arterioles are intramyocardial. 5 We hypothesized that because the degree of dilation of the coronary arterioles is related to the severity of stenosis, 3,4,6 aBV should increase in proportion to coronary stenosis severity. If this phenomenon could be measured noninvasively, the presence and severity of noncritical coronary stenosis could be measured at rest without recourse to any form of stress.Whereas phasic changes in intramyocardial arteriolar dimensions have been documented during cardiac contraction, 7 there is controversy regarding changes in capillary dimensions during this period. 8 -11 We postulated that because arterioles and venules are larger than capillaries, their compression would occur early in systole, causing an increase in their resistance that would re...