Comparability of tympanic and oral mercury thermometers at high ambient temperatures

BMC Research Notes

Rose McGready³  François Nosten³  Kasia Stepniewska²  Elizabeth A Ashley³  Andrew Cavey¹  Rachael L Moore¹  Amy L Chue³ 

[1] Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, 68/30 Baantung Road, PO Box 46, Mae Sot, Tak 63110, Thailand;Mahidol-Oxford Clinical Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, 420/6 Ratchawithi Road, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand;Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LJ, UK

关键词: Tropical setting;    Tympanic thermometer;    Oral mercury thermometer;    Ambient temperature;   

Others  :  1166146
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-5-356

 received in 2011-12-30, accepted in 2012-06-27,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Body temperature can be measured in seconds with tympanic thermometers as opposed to minutes with mercury ones. The aim of this study was to compare tympanic and oral mercury thermometer measurements under high ambient field temperatures.

Results

Tympanic temperature (measured thrice by 3 operators) was compared to oral temperature measured once with a mercury-in-glass thermometer in 201 patients (aged ≥5 years), on the Thai-Myanmar border. Ambient temperature was measured with an electronic thermo-hygrometer. Participants had a mean [min-max] age of 27 [5–60] years and 42% (84) were febrile by oral thermometer. The mean difference in the mercury and tympanic temperature measurement for all observers/devices was 0.09 (95%CI 0.07-0.12)°C and intra-class correlation for repeat tympanic measurements was high (≥0.97) for each observer. Deviations in tympanic temperatures were not related to ambient temperature.

Conclusion

Clinically significant differences were not observed between oral and tympanic temperature measurements at high ambient temperatures in a rural tropical setting.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Chue et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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