With a scanner modified for Doppler tissue imaging, mean myocardial velocities (MMV) across the myocardium were measured. The aim of this study was to determine the normal range of the maximum MMV in six standardized phases of the cardiac cycle. The MMV was defined as the average value of the myocardial velocity measured along each M-mode scan line throughout the thickness of the myocardium. The maximum MMV was defined as the maximum value of the MMV during the particular cardiac phase. Simultaneous gray-scale and Doppler tissue imaging M-mode images were taken of the interventricular septum and the left ventricular posterior wall from the parasternal long-axis and short-axis views in 15 normal volunteers (aged 21 to 47 years; mean 32 +/- 6 years). Each cardiac cycle was divided into six phases: atrial contraction, isovolumetric contraction, ventricular ejection, isovolumetric relaxation, rapid ventricular filling, and diastasis. Isovolumetric contraction, isovolumetric relaxation, and diastasis were subdivided into two parts a and b because of changes in the direction of the myocardial movement. For each volunteer, the mean and standard deviation of the maximum MMV were measured for each cardiac phase averaged from 12 cardiac cycles from both long-axis and short-axis views. Finally, the mean and standard deviation were taken for each cardiac phase from 180 cardiac cycles from 15 volunteers. We have found that specific cardiac phases show significant differences in the maximum MMV between the adjoining cardiac phases and significant differences also occur between the maximum MMV measured in the interventricular septum and the left ventricular posterior wall during the same cardiac phases. These normal values provide a standard against which future Doppler tissue imaging M-mode studies of abnormal left ventricular function might be compared.