transcranial Doppler with microbubbles????

The microbubbles can demonstrate any right-to-left shunt.

The article link below is from ACR (American College of Radiology)'s guidelines:

http://www.acr.org/SecondaryMainMenu...l_doppler.aspx

It briefly touches on the reason for using the microbubbles.

While I've never seen this procedure, I have participated in many contrast echocardiograms, for which we inject agitated saline IV.
The purpose of these studies is to demonstrate (or not ) any unusual/abnormal communication between the ventricles or atria (PFO = patent foramen ovale).

You might do a google or yahoo or vivisimo search and ferret out any more information on the microbubbles as their use pertains to the transcranial ultrasound.

Good luck!

I've never heard of that procedure until now.

Just sounds like something Billy Mays would be selling on late night TV.