Colliding spherical calcium waves in enzymatically isolated rat cardiac myocytes develop new wavefronts propagating perpendicular to the original direction. When investigated by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), using the fluorescent Ca2+ indicator fluo-3 AM, "cusp"-like structures become visible that are favorably approximated by double parabolae. The time-dependent position of the vertices is used to determine propagation velocity and negative curvature of the wavefront in the region of collision. It is evident that negatively curved waves propagate faster than positively curved, single waves. Considering two perfectly equal expanding circular waves, we demonstrated that the collision of calcium waves is due to an autocatalytic process (calcium-induced calcium release), and not to a simple phenomenon of interference. Following the spatiotemporal organization in simpler chemical systems maintained under conditions far from the thermodynamic equilibrium (Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction), the dependence of the normal velocity on the curvature of the spreading wavefront is given by a linear relation. The so-called velocity-curvature relationship makes clear that the velocity is enhanced by curvature toward the direction of forward propagation and decreased by curvature away from the direction of forward propagation (with an influence of the diffusion coefficient). Experimentally obtained velocity data of both negatively and positively curved calcium waves were approximated by orthogonal weighted regression. The negative slope of the straight line resulted in an effective diffusion coefficient of 1.2 x 10(-4) mm2/s. From the so-called critical radius, which must be exceeded to initiate a traveling calcium wave, a critical volume (with enhanced [Ca2+]i) of approximately 12 microm3 was calculated. This is almost identical to the volume that is occupied by a single calcium spark.