In order to assess the effects of nifedipine on left ventricular diastolic abnormalities, 26 patients (mean age 52 year, range 42-66) were studied 10 days after a first myocardial infarction, at rest and during handgrip by Doppler examination. The time-velocity integral for the rapid (E) and atrial (A) filling phases and the E/A ration were used; stroke volume was calculated as the aortic time-velocity integral times the cross-sectional valvular area. Twenty age-matched normal subjects constituted the controls. Twenty-one patients had a reversal of the early to late diastolic filling pattern; five patients had a restrictive pattern. Nifedipine normalized left ventricular filling in patients with a reverse pattern, both at rest and during handgrip. Moreover, these patients showed a descending left ventricular function curve by relating at rest and handgrip values of cardiac index and the E/A ratio. After nifedipine, these study patients showed an ascending left ventricular curve, similar to that of normal subjects, with an increase in cardiac index and a slight decrease in the E/R ratio. No beneficial effects were detectable in patients with a restrictive pattern of left ventricular filling.