Cardiovascular responses and radiographic image quality during cerebral angiography, aortofemoral angiography and left ventriculography with nonionic ioxilan, iohexol or iopamidol were compared with those of ionic sodium meglumine diatrizoate in pentobarbital anesthetized dogs. Injection of all contrast media caused cardiovascular changes to a greater or lesser degree, e.g., hypotension, bradycardia, tachycardia, a decrease in left ventricular pressure (LVP) and its first derivative (dP/dt), and prolongation of the P-Q and Q-T intervals. Ionic diatrizoate had a greater effect on cardiovascular parameters than nonionic contrast media during angiography in all areas. Moreover, diatrizoate produced cardiac arrhythmias and prominent changes in blood rheology concerned with blood viscosity and deformability of the erythrocyte. The cause of various effects of contrast media seemed to lie mainly in osmolality, viscosity and partially ionic additives. The radiographic image quality of all of the contrast media used was similar, but nonionic ioxilan and iohexol with lower iodine content and low osmolality gave better radio opacity than ionic diatrizoate in cerebral angiography. These results suggested that nonionic contrast media should be recommended as a diagnostic tool for both animals and human patients in poor health.