Radionuclide ventriculography and contrast ventriculography were performed in two comparable projections on 50 patients with suspected coronary artery disease. The efficacy of conventional cine display and Fourier image analysis of the radionuclide ventriculogram was compared using contrast ventriculography as the gold standard. Of seven different combinations of Fourier images, the combination of left anterior oblique amplitude and phase and left posterior oblique amplitude and phase provided the highest sensitivity (87%), specificity (83%), accuracy (86%), and kappa coefficient (0.64). To increase statistical power, segment data were collapsed to global data in which a heart was considered normal if all segments were normal and abnormal if one or more segments were abnormal. Fourier images had higher sensitivity (Fourier 87%, cine 47%); lower specificity (Fourier 83%, cine 92%), higher accuracy (Fourier 86%, cine 58%), and higher kappa coefficient (Fourier 0.64, cine 0.25), and these differences were statistically significant (p less than 0.01).