Stress-induced ST-segment elevation following myocardial infarction (MI) has been correlated with myocardial ischemia, viability and wall motion abnormality, but its mechanism is still unclear, so the present study compared ST-segment elevation and wall motion response during exercise, dobutamine and dipyridamole stresses. Twenty-five patients with their first anterior MI underwent exercise, dobutamine and dipyridamole echocardiography on different days 4-6 weeks after MI. Left ventricular wall motion was analyzed using 5-grade/16-segment model and myocardial ischemia was considered as a worsening of the wall motion score index (WMSI) during the stress test; myocardial viability was defined as a reduction of WMSI during low dose dobutamine. Dyskinesis formation was defined by visual analysis as akinesis that became dyskinetic or if the dyskinesis worsened. Both exercise and dobutamine induced ST-segment elevation, but dipyridamole did not. There was no significant difference in the degree of ST-segment elevation between the patients with and without myocardial ischemia or dyskinesis formation. Exercise induced a higher ST-segment elevation in patients with myocardial viability than those without (0.17+/-0.09 mV vs 0.09+/-0.07 mV, p<0.05). Exercise-induced ST-segment elevations correlated with dobutamine-induced ST-segment elevations (p<0.01), changes in heart rate (p<0.05) and systolic blood pressure (p<0.05). In conclusions, stress-induced ST-segment elevation does not correlate with either myocardial ischemia or stress-induced dyskinesis, but may be associated with myocardial viability.