A prospective study of the possibilities and achievements of ultrasonography of the adrenal glands is presented. The adrenal glands of 146 patients with abnormalities suspected clinically were examined with ultrasound. Patients were also evaluated with computed tomography where there are firm criteria for the evaluation of adrenal pathology. Positive findings were detected by ultrasound in 46 patients, whereas computed tomography disclosed pathologic changes in 65 patients. In 81 patients, the finding of computed tomography was normal. With ultrasound, false positives were obtained in 3 cases and false negatives in 19 cases (14 hyperplasias, 5 tumors). Ultrasound findings were additionally compared with angiographic and clinical tests as well as with pathohistologic results of surgery and autopsy.

Reduced and oxidized glutathione concentrations in post-mortem brain tissue from the substantia nigra of control subjects and patients with neuropathologically confirmed Parkinson's disease were measured by a coulometric method using high-pressure liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection. Reduced glutathione concentrations were decreased in the substantia nigra of parkinsonian patients compared with controls. Differences in the concentration of oxidized glutathione and in the percentage of oxidized glutathione of the total glutathione were not observed between parkinsonian and control subjects. The finding that oxidized glutathione is not decreased in Parkinson's disease suggests that the decrease in reduced glutathione is not exclusively the consequence of neuronal loss in the substantia nigra but may indicate a state of oxidative stress.