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Comparison of oral and tympanic temperatures in a Veterans Administration outpatient clinic
I Z Abolnik1, P A Kithas, J J McDonnald
1Salt Lake City VA Medical Center, University of Utah, USA.
Background:
To examine the accuracy of noncontact tympanic (NCT) temperatures in outpatients, we conducted a prospective study comparing NCT temperature with temperatures obtained by oral mercury thermometers.
Methods:
The study included 410 patients in whom oral and NCT temperatures were obtained.
Results:
Mean oral temperature was 36.47 +/- 0.44 degrees C and mean NCT temperature was 36.36 +/- 0.49 degrees C. On paired-sample, two-sided t-testing, oral temperature differed significantly from NCT temperature, with a P-value < 0.0001. The difference between simultaneous oral and NCT temperatures was > or = 1 degree F; in 63 cases, oral temperature was higher than NCT temperature.
Conclusion:
We conclude that NCT temperature measurement is not reliable in an internal medicine outpatient clinic setting.