The purpose of this study was to noninvasively differentiate in patients with reduced global left ventricular function between those with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) and coronary artery disease (CAD). Clinical features and findings of dipyridamole thallium-201 imaging in 55 consecutive patients with IDC were compared with those in 77 with CAD. Left ventricular ejection fraction was similar between the 2 groups (34 +/- 16% vs 39 +/- 7%). Patients with IDC had lower incidences of ischemic chest pain (11 vs 79%; p less than 0.0001), electrocardiographic evidence of myocardial infarction (24 vs 82%; p less than 0.0001), and reversible defects (4 vs 57%; p less than 0.0001) than did those with CAD. The lowest percent thallium uptake in the initial imaging was less with CAD than IDC (30 +/- 15% vs 59 +/- 10%; p less than 0.001). Patterns of perfusion defects were classified as: no defects, multiple small defects and large defects. Of patients with IDC, 15 had no defects, 19 had multiple small defects, and 21 had large defects, whereas all those with CAD had large defects (p less than 0.0001). Stepwise discriminant analysis, using chest pain and electrocardiography, revealed sensitivity of 89%, specificity of 87%, accuracy of 88%, and positive predictive value of 83% in the identification of patients with IDC.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)