Arm and leg vascular responsiveness to comparable shear stimuli during isolated dynamic exercise has not been assessed in humans. Consequently, six young cyclists performed incremental, intermittent handgrip exercise (arm) and knee-extensor exercise (leg) from 5 to 60% of maximal work rate (WR). Ultrasound Doppler measurements were taken in the brachial artery (BA), common femoral artery (CFA), and deep femoral artery (DFA) at rest and at each WR to assess diameter and sheer rate changes. Exercise at 60% maximum WR increased shear rate to the same degree in the CFA (314.3 +/- 33.3 s(-1)) and BA (303.3 +/- 26.3 s(-1)), but was significantly higher in the DFA (712.6 +/- 88.3 s(-1)). Compared with rest, exercise at 60% maximum WR did not alter CFA vessel diameter, but increased BA diameter (0.42 +/- 0.01 to 0.49 +/- 0.01 cm) and DFA diameter (0.59 +/- 0.05 to 0.64 +/- 0.04 cm). These data from the DFA demonstrate for the first time a substantial improvement in vascular reactivity in a conduit vessel only slightly distal to the CFA. However, despite comparable dilation between the BA and DFA, the slope of the relationship between vessel diameter and shear rate was much greater in the arm (2.4 x 10(-4) +/- 4.6 x 10(-5) cm/s) than in either the DFA (8.9 x 10(-5) +/- 1.5 x 10(-5) cm/s) or CFA (2.1 x 10(-5) +/- 1.1 x 10(-5) cm/s). Together, these findings reveal a substantial heterogeneity in vascular responsiveness in the leg during dynamic exercise but demonstrate that conduit vessel dilation for a given change in shear rate is, nonetheless, reduced in the leg compared with the arm.