Abstract
INTRODUCTION
To evaluate the effectiveness of non-contact infrared thermometer (NCIT) by comparing with other thermometers and/or body temperature measurement methods.
METHODS
The patients were divided to 3 groups: 0-1 year-old babies, female patients >16 years-old, and children between 1-16 years-old. The body temperature of all patients was measured by NCIT at the temporal region, and the digital thermometer through the axillary region. Moreover, body temperature of children was measured with by tympanic thermometer and of adults was measured by digital thermometer through oral route.
RESULTS
When compared to other temperature measurement methods, in all patients, the temporal temperature was not statistically different to that of rectal temperature (p>0.05); but it was 0.6°C higher than axillary temperature (p<0.001), 0.3°C higher than oral temperature (p<0.001), and 0.1°C higher than tympanic temperature (p<0.001). If the rectal temperature of ≥38°C has been taken as a reference value for fever; the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for average temporal temperature were as follows: 48.5%, 99.5%, 88.9%, and 96.3%, respectively. Based on visual inspection of the Bland-Altman plots, NCIT underestimated the temperature if a higher body temperature present, which resulted in a low sensitivity.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Our findings indicate that NCITs can be used as a rapid, hygienic and non-invasive method of excluding fever in children. However, this method has low sensitivity for detecting fever compared to that of rectal measurement and other non-invasive techniques. Although temporal temperature seems to be close to rectal temperature, this method is not ideal for detecting febrile patients yet.
Keywords: Fever, body temperature measurement, non-contact infrared thermometer, children
