We have studied the cardiovascular effects of equipotent concentrations of halothane or isoflurane, with or without 50% nitrous oxide in oxygen, in 80 patients, aged 60 yr or more, during 20 min of stable equipotent anaesthesia. Non-invasive measurement techniques were used, with suprasternal Doppler ultrasonography for estimating cardiac output. Both isoflurane and halothane reduced heart rate and systemic arterial pressure. With isoflurane, mean rate decreased from 72 (SD 9.7) to 67 (10.4) beat min-1 and with halothane from 76 (10.1) to 65 (9.1) beat min-1 (P < 0.05). Mean diastolic arterial pressure decreased from 81 (11.3) to 58 (17.0) mm Hg with isoflurane and from 86 (14.7) to 70 (13.3) mm Hg with halothane (P < 0.05). Cardiac index decreased from 3.1 (1.03) to 2.7 (0.71) litre min-1 m-2 with isoflurane and from 3.1 (0.98) to 2.5 (0.57) litre min-1 m-2 with halothane (P < 0.05). Systemic vascular resistance decreased significantly in all groups except those receiving halothane with nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide resulted in significantly less depression of cardiac index when given with isoflurane than when given with halothane. The mean percentage change in cardiac index during isoflurane anaesthesia without nitrous oxide was 16.7%; with nitrous oxide there was a 0.5% increase. Halothane, in combination with nitrous oxide, resulted in greater depression of cardiac index than isoflurane with nitrous oxide. The mean percentage change with halothane was 20.4% (22.2%); with isoflurane there was a 0.5% (27.1%) increase (P < 0.05). Hypotension was more pronounced in patients anaesthetized with isoflurane (n = 40) than those anaesthetized with halothane (n = 40), irrespective of the presence of nitrous oxide. The mean percentage decrease with isoflurane was 29.7% (21.10%) compared with 16.8% (16.78%) with halothane (P < 0.05).