To establish a norm for cardiac velocities in healthy Chinese adults, we examined 30 normal subjects (15 men and 15 women) with pulsed- and continuous-wave Doppler, and color flow mapping. The subjects ranged in age from 18 to 60 years (mean 37 years). We found that the early (E) and late (A) diastolic peak velocities for the mitral valve were 87 +/- 16 cm/sec and 61 +/- 15 cm/sec, respectively. The E/A ratio was 1.5 +/- 0.4. The E and A peak velocities for the tricuspid valve were 57 +/- 10 cm/sec and 40 +/- 7 cm/sec, respectively. The peak velocities for the left ventricular outflow tract, the ascending aorta, the proximal descending aorta and the main pulmonary artery were 77 +/- 19, 106 +/- 20, 96 +/- 24 and 74 +/- 17 cm/sec, respectively. None of the velocities exceeded 154 cm/sec. There were no significant differences between men and women. However, older subjects (greater than or equal to 40 years) had a higher mitral A velocity (69 +/- 13 cm/sec vs 57 +/- 17 cm/sec, p less than 0.05) and a lower E/A ratio (1.3 +/- 0.4 vs 1.6 +/- 0.3, p less than 0.05) than did subjects under 40 years of age. Mild tricuspid regurgitation was detected in 8 of the 30 subjects (27%), mitral regurgitation in 3 of the subjects (10%) and pulmonic regurgitation in one of the subjects (3%). There was no aortic regurgitation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)