Presence of multivessel coronary artery disease (MVD) identifies a high risk subgroup after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) has recently emerged as a promising non invasive test to detect the presence and extent of coronary artery disease. Forty six consecutive patients (38 males, 8 females; mean age 48.6 +/- 10.4 years) of Q-wave acute myocardial infarction were subjected to submaximal treadmill test (TMT) and dobutamine stress echocardiography to see their ability to predict multivessel coronary artery disease as detected by coronary angiography before hospital discharge. Dobutamine infusion was started at 5 micrograms/kg/min to a maximum of 40 micrograms/kg/min, to achieve 70 percent of the age predicted heart rate. Appearance of new regional wall motion abnormality was interpreted as positive DSE for MVD. Mean peak infusion dose of dobutamine used in the study was 28.56 +/- 5.67 micrograms/kg/min. In none of the patients, the test had to be terminated due to side effects. The sensitivity and specificity of DSE to predict MVD was 80 percent and 93.7 percent, respectively as compared to 45 percent and 86 percent for submaximal TMT. Thus, DSE in patients of AMI before hospital discharge is a safe procedure with fairly accurate prediction of multivessel coronary artery disease.