The purpose of this study was to determine whether thyroid state affects the beat-to-beat regulation of contractile strength in cardiac muscle. Transmembrane action potential and isometric force were simultaneously recorded in right ventricular papillary muscles from euthyroid, hypothyroid, and hyperthyroid rats. Large thyroid state-dependent alterations in the contractile response of the muscles were not accompanied by any significant difference in the action potential. During steady-state stimulation, single test stimuli were interpolated at varying intervals. Action potential duration and peak force of the test responses were plotted against the test stimulus interval to produce electrical and mechanical restitution curves. In all muscles studied, electrical and mechanical restitution followed different time courses; over a wide range of test intervals, action potential duration and peak force of the test responses changed in opposite directions. Thyroid state profoundly affected the recovery of contractile strength, while only minor differences were found among the electrical restitution curves of the three groups of preparations. Mechanical recovery was much faster in hyperthyroid and slower in hypothyroid than in euthyroid muscles. We conclude that electrical and mechanical restitutions occur through separate processes and that the thyroid state affects only the mechanisms responsible for the contractile recovery of rat myocardium. The modifications induced by thyroid dysfunction on contractile recovery might be accounted for by an effect of thyroid state on a time-dependent recycling of calcium by the sarcoplasmic reticulum.