Exacerbation of collagen arthritis by noise stress.

We evaluated the effect of noise exposure on collagen arthritis in rats. Ninety-eight female Wistar rats were transported and subjected to a 90-decibel noise during a 1-h period for 7 days commencing 3 days prior to immunization with type II collagen. As a control, 99 rats received simultaneous immunizations but were otherwise left undisturbed. Noise exposure was associated with statistically significant increases in the prevalence of arthritis (p less than 0.05) and, early in its course, in the severity (p less than 0.001) of arthritis.