ARTICLES |
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Year : 2003 | Volume
: 5
| Issue : 18 | Page : 1--11 |
Stress hormones in the research on cardiovascular effects of noise
W Babisch
Division of Environment and Health, Federal Environmental Agency, 14191 Berlin, Germany
Correspondence Address:
W Babisch Department of Environment and Health, Federal Environmental Agency, P. O. Box 33 00 22, 14191 Berlin Germany
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
PMID: 12631430 
In recent years, the measurement of stress hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol has been widely used to study the possible increase in cardiovascular risk of noise exposed subjects. Since endocrine changes manifesting in physiological disorders come first in the chain of cause-effect for perceived noise stress, noise effects in stress hormones may therefore be detected in populations after relatively short periods of noise exposure. This makes stress hormones a useful stress indicator, but regarding a risk assessment, the interpretation of endocrine noise effects is often a qualitative one rather than a quantitative one. Stress hormones can be used in noise studies to study mechanisms of physiological reactions to noise and to identify vulnerable groups. A review is given about findings in stress hormones from laboratory, occupational and environmental studies.
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