The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of acute myocardial ischemia on the early diastolic mitral-to-apical velocity profile. Intraventricular filling velocities were measured by color M-mode Doppler echocardiography, which allows simultaneous measurements of velocities at multiple sites. Twenty patients were examined during angioplasty and eight dogs during transient coronary artery occlusion. Velocities at each 0.46 cm level from the mitral tip toward the apex were determined at the time of peak early transmitral velocity. Before angioplasty, early diastolic flow velocities decreased progressively from the mitral tip toward the apex. During angioplasty, intraventricular velocities showed a more abrupt decrease from the middle region toward the apex (p < 0.05). A similar change in the mitral-to-apical profile was found during myocardial ischemia in dogs (p < 0.05). Also, there was a decrease in peak early transmitral velocity (p < 0.01) and peak early transmitral pressure gradient (p = 0.06). Volume loading and constriction of the caval veins performed in the nonischemic ventricle did not appear to change the mitral-to-apical velocity profile. Regional myocardial ischemia was associated with a change in the mitral-to-apical velocity profile as measured by color M-mode Doppler echocardiography. The altered filling pattern could not be explained by changes in loading conditions and may reflect impaired relaxation of the ischemic ventricle.