The failure of the blood pressure to fall during the late strain pase of the Valsalva maneuver in patients with heart failure may result from the left ventricle operating on a flat portion of its function curve or from maintenance of left ventricular volume despite decreased systemic venous return. To test these possibilities, we studied the effect of the Valsalva maneuver (40 cm H2O for 15 sec) on left ventricular volume in 12 normal subjects with a mean left ventricular ejection fraction of 0.65 +/- 0.07 (+/- SD) and in eight patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy, evidence of pulmonary congestion, and a mean left ventricular ejection fraction of 0.23 +/- 0.09. Left ventricular volume and right ventricular area were determined by apical two-dimensional echocardiography. In both groups the right ventricular end-diastolic area decreased during the late strain phase of the Valsalva maneuver. In normal subjects it decreased from 9.3 +/- 1.5 to 5.6 +/- 1.6 cm2 (p less than .001) and in patients it decreased from 13 +/- 2.2 to 10 +/- 2.9 cm2 (p less than .001). In normal subjects, left ventricular end-diastolic volume decreased from the control level during the Valsalva maneuver, and this was apparent in both the four-chamber (96 +/- 21 to 68 +/- 18 ml, p less than .01) and two-chamber views (97 +/- 15 to 56 +/- 20 ml, p less than .01). In the patients, left ventricular end-diastolic volume was not significantly different from control in either view (199 +/- 70 to 195 +/- 78 and 214 +/- 77 to 218 +/- 86 ml, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)