بررسي صحت و دقت اندازه گيري درجه حرارت بدن با استفاده از ترمومترهاي مادون قرمز گوشي و ترمومترهاي جيوه اي زير بغلي در مقايسه با ترموتر استاندارد دهاني

Accuracy and precision of body temperature measurement with infrared tympanic and axiliary thermometers compared with standard oral mercury thermometer

Background: Monitoring patientsʹ temperatures is an important aspect of clinical nursing. Oral temperature readings have long been considered as a gold standard. However, oral temperature measurements may be contraindicated in some patients, that is cases with level of consciousness and seizure. Axiliary and tympanic temperature monitoring are often the next choices. We decided to evaluate these methods compared with standard oral temperature readings. Materials and Methods: Subjects were a convenient sample of 81 adult patients over 17 years old in Shahrood Imam Hussein hospital. The study time course spanned a 1-mounth in December, 2004. Body temperature is measured in the evening using mercury oral and axiliary thermometers and "Omeron" tympanic thermometer. Results: From 81 patients studied, there were 35(43.2%) males and 46(56.8%) .females and their mean age was 46.0 ±19.2 (range 17-85). The mean for oral temperature was 36.9+0.56°c, auxiliary tympanic: 36.5+0.49°c. Oral thernwmetry identified a fever in 8 of 81 (9.9%) patients. The ROC analysis for determining a cut point with 100% sensitivity is used. For axiliary measurement at 36.9.5 82% specificity and for tympanic measurement at 36.45 °c, 55% specificity is recorded. Alpha coronbach for reliability of tympanic thermometer is equal to 0.98. The correlation between right to right and left to right ear temperature were 0.96 and 0.94, respectively.