The renal and pulmonary hemodynamic effects of fenoldopam, dobutamine, dopamine and norepinephrine were compared in the pentobarbital-anesthetized dog. Animals were pretreated with propranolol (1 mg/kg, i.v.) to eliminate β-adrenoceptor-mediated effects in the renal and pulmonary circulations. Heparinized blood was withdrawn from the right femoral artery and transferred, via a peristaltic pump, to the pulmonary arterial branch supplying the left diaphragmatic lobe of the lung. The flow rate of the pump was set so that the perfusion pressure in the lobe was equal to resting diastolic pulmonary artery blood pressure. Under these conditions of constant flow, changes in perfusion pressure reflect changes in pulmonary vascular resistance. Renal blood flow was measured in the same experiments via an electromagnetic flow probe which was placed directly on the left renal artery. Intraarterial administration of fenoldopam resulted in a marked reduction in renal vascular resistance at doses that had virtually no effect on pulmonary vascular resistance. Conversely, dobutamine increased pulmonary vascular resistance slightly, and had no effect on the renal circulation. Dopamine increased pulmonary vascular resistance at all doses, and exhibited a biphasic effect on renal vascular resistance. At low doses, dopamine produced a modest reduction in renal vascular resistance, and at higher doses, dopamine significantly increased renal vascular resistance. Norepinephrine increased both pulmonary and renal vascular resistance at all doses, as expected. These results indicate that fenoldopam may be hemodynamically favorable over dobutamine and dopamine in the management of patients with low output cardiac failure since fenoldopam improves renal hemodynamics at doses that have little or no effect on the pulmonary circulation