During an atrial pacing test, a correlative study in myocardial lactate, glucose, potassium, and inorganic phosphate balances was done in 34 patients with clinical evidence of ischemic heart disease. Electrocardiogram was continuously monitored while left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) was measured before and immediately after pacing. Coronary angiograms performed after the pacing test revealed atherosclerotic narrowings in all patients. During pacing, 16 patients developed anginal pain, and their LVEDP increased significantly. The other 18 patients had no angina and no significant change in LVEDP. In these 18 patients, there were no significant changes throughout the pacing study in myocardial balances of lactate, glucose, potassium, and inorganic phosphate. In contrast, the 16 patients with induced angina during pacing showed a significant myocardial production of lactate and a loss of potassium. Myocardial inorganic phosphate loss was not statistically significant. There was no significant change in myocardial glucose extraction during angina, although a slight increase was observed during the 1st min afer pacingmthere was no correlation between the arterial concentration and the myocardial extraction of these substances. N stoichiometric relationship was found between glucose and lactate or between potassium and inorganic phospahte balance; Myocardial extraction and production of lactate correlated best with inorganic phosphate uptake and loss. In the preset study, lactate was a more reliable metabolic indicator of myocardial ischemia than potassium and inorganic phosphate, although these last two substances may be helpful in acheiving a greater accuracy for biochemical diagnosis of ischemia. Myocardial glucose balance was of no value as a metabolic indicator of ischemia in this pacing study.