The radiation absorbed doses from five commercially available hepatobiliary agents--Tc-99m-tagged analogs of IDA (EIDA, PIPIDA, HIDA, PBIDA, DISIDA) have been calculated from biokinetic data in 41 normal subjects. Serial gamma images, with blood and urine samples, were obtained to calculate cumulated radioactivity in the source organs: blood, kidney, bladder, liver, gallbladder, and intestines. The critical organ was the gallbladder, with an absorbed-dose range of 690 to 780 mrad/mCl. Absorbed doses for other target organs were: upper large intestine 320 to 370 mrad/mCi, lower large intestine 210 to 240, small intestine 170 to 200, liver 65 (DISIDA) to 130 (PBIDA), ovaries 63 to 72, and urinary bladder wall 23 (PBIDA) to 36 (EIDA). The radiation absorbed dose was largely independent of changes in chemical structure except in (a) the liver, where absorbed dose varied by a factor of two in proportion to the rate of excretion of the IDA agent from the liver, and (b) the urinary bladder, where absorbed dose varied by a factor of 1.6 because of differences in rate of excretion. When the stimulus for gallbladder emptying is changed from whole-meal ingestion to cholecystokinin injection, the absorbed dose to the gallbladder increases to approximately 1 rad/mCi; if no gallbladder emptying is assumed, its absorbed dose increases to approximately 1.9 rad/mCi. In the absence of contraindication, the gallbladder absorbed dose may thus be decreased by inducing gallbladder emptying at the end of the imaging study.