Recently, an insertional mutation in the ferritin-L gene was reported in some patients with familial basal ganglia degeneration, which, however, could not be detected in another Parkinson's disease (PD) population. We investigated 186 PD patients, in whom an increased amount of iron of the substantia nigra (SN) was priorly identified by transcranial ultrasound, for mutations of the whole coding region of ferritin-L and ferritin-H by denaturing high-pressure liquid chromatography and subsequent sequencing. In the ferritin-L gene two silent mutations were detected. In the ferritin-H gene the sequence variation 161A-->G was found in one patient but none of the 186 controls. Although functional analysis will show, whether this sequence variation might be causative for single cases of PD, the results indicate that mutations in the ferritin genes are not a common cause for PD with increased levels of iron of the SN.