Objective. This study sought to investigate whether low-dose dobutamine-MRI can detect residual myocardial viability in patients with chronic myocardial infarction and left ventricular dysfunction.Methods. Eleven patients with chronic myocardial infarction and left ventricular dysfunction were employed for identification of viable myocardium by cine-MRI during dobutamine infusion. All patients underwent coronary angiography and left ventriculography,18FDG-PET, MRI at rest and stress.The systolic wall thickening measured at rest and during stress was compared with the results of 18FDG- PET, respectively.Results. A significant difference of either dobutamine-induced systolic wall thickening (SWthstress) or dobutamine-induced contractile reserve (ΔSWth＝ SWthstress- SWthrest) was present between viable and scar regions (1.0±0.3 versus -0.3 ±0.1, P＜0.01; 1.0±0.3 versus -0.2±0.2, P＜0.01).