[The clinical relevance of scintigraphic adrenal imaging (author's transl)]

Labelled steroid precursors have been found to be valuable in scintigraphic imaging of localized adrenal disease or even in adrenal hyperplasia. Scanning procedures are non-invasive diagnostic methods and, in the case of the adrenals the images reflect anatomical as well as functional changes in the organs, constituting an advantage over angiographic methods. However, careful preparation of the patient, sophisticated technical prerequisites and a case-oriented programme of the procedure favouring either dexamethasone suppression, comparsion with phantom measurements adrenal profiles and/or multichannel analysis are necessary for the attainment of optimum results on scintigraphy.