Myocardial contrast echocardiography: basic principles.

Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) is a new technique that can be used to examine the myocardial microcirculation. It uses gas-filled microbubbles that behave similarly to red blood cells in the microcirculation. This report describes the parts of the coronary microcirculation visualized by MCE. It also describes the types of microbubbles currently available for research. The properties of microbubbles and their interaction with ultrasound are also described as well as different imaging techniques. This information is necessary to understand the basics of MCE.