The aim of this study is to present a modern method which can be used in the early phase of myocardial infarction. Its results show that with the detection of residual ischaemia, valuable information can be gained concerning the progression of the disease and the claim to revascularisation. During the first week (2-7 days), the authors performed risk assessing dobutamine stress echocardiography in 52 nonselected acute patients with first myocardial infarction. Patients with negative results were regarded as low risk cases 35/52 (67.3%), while those with positive results were regarded as high risk cases 17/52 (32.7%). The number of the serious postinfarction hard events was 22/52 (42.3%) during the one-year following period. In the case of the positive group, during mainly the first three months the occurrence of such events was found to be extremely high: 16/17 (94.1%), while in the case of the negative group it was only 6/35 (17.1%). On the basis of the test results it can be stated that coronarography was performed in 14/17 (82.4%) vs. 3/35 (8.6%) of the cases, and revascularisation in 10/17 (58.8%) vs. 1/35 (2.9%) of the cases. In 2/17 (11.8%) vs. 3/35 (8.6%) of the cases, the patients suffered from acute coronary syndrome and the mortality rate was 2/17 (11.8%) vs. 1/35 (2.9%). The sensitivity value was 79.1%, the specificity value 90.6%, and the positive and negative predictive values 86.3% and 85.3%. There was no such significant complication detected which could be attributable to the examination. On the basis of the results and corresponding to the data in special literature, the authors found the dobutamine stress test a good and safe prognostical method even some days after the infarction. With the help of this method the high and low risk groups of patients can be separated early, and at the same time the claim to revascularisation in the first three months can be measured too.