Abstract: AIM To explore an effective approach based on digital video analysis to determine contractile characteristic parameters in adherent cardiac myocytes. METHODSIn accordance with the property that each specific point on the surface of adherent growth cardiac myocytes on a two-dimensional dish panel keeps moving actually in a periodic back-and-forth manner along a limited one-dimensional linear segment, we employed a correlation algorithm with one-dimensional linear searching region simplified from a typical block matching algorithm to determine the displacement vector, the contraction speed, the acceleration and the frequency. RESULTSFor synthetic standard video image sequence-containing contracting myoctes, the determined contractile amplitude values by this method exhibited close agreement with standard value without difference, showing no statistical significance. The dynamic contractile characteristic parameters including amplitude, velocity and acceleration could be obtained by automated tracking in practical videos. CONCLUSIONThis is a convenient method for quantifying biomechanical characteristic parameters of isolated adherent growth cardiac myocytes.