Data comparing myocardial thallium-201 imaging after exercise and intravenous dipyridamole infusion in the same patients are scarce. Accordingly, this study is a segment-by-segment quantitative analysis of regional uptake and washout of thallium-201 after dipyridamole (0.56 mg/kg) and symptom-limited exercise testing in 21 patients (ages 58 +/- 9.2 years) with chest pain studied 2.5 +/- 1.0 weeks apart. Thallium-201 activity in 9 myocardial segments was measured in initial and delayed anterior and 45 degree left anterior oblique views, producing 184 pairs of segments in the distribution of 63 coronary supply regions for direct comparison. The number of segments with normal thallium-201 uptake and the number of numerically significant defects were similar with exercise and dipyridamole (76 vs 73%, 24 vs 27%, respectively, difference not significant). A slightly higher proportion of redistribution defects was found after dipyridamole infusion compared to exercise (17 vs 10%, p less than 0.05). Agreement between 87% (165 of 189) of segment pairs was found when each was classified as either normal or abnormal. Although 24 of 189 segments were discordant, agreement was observed in 92% (61 of 63) of coronary supply regions determined to be normal (41 of 41) or abnormal (20 of 22). In 15 patients who underwent cardiac catheterization, exercise and dipyridamole-thallium-201 scintigraphy detected 61% (16 of 26) vs 61% (16 of 26) of stenoses greater than 50% (difference not significant) and 100% (19 of 19) vs 100% (19 of 19) (difference not significant) normal vessels, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)