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[Comparison of different methods of temperature measurment in children]
Momcilo Pavlović1, Nedeljko Radlović, Zoran Leković
1Decje odeljenje, Opsta bolnica Subotica.
Insights
Accurate fever detection in children is crucial. Rectal and tympanic thermometry are the most reliable methods for measuring body temperature in pediatric patients.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Medical Devices
- Clinical Thermometry
Background:
- Accurate fever detection in children is critical to avoid serious health consequences.
- False positive fever readings can lead to unnecessary medical interventions.
- This study aimed to evaluate and compare various body temperature measurement techniques.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the accuracy of different methods for measuring body temperature in children.
- To identify the most reliable thermometry techniques for pediatric fever detection.
Main Methods:
- A prospective study involving 263 children aged 1 month to 18 years.
- Body temperature was measured using tactile assessment, electronic forehead and ear thermometers, and mercury thermometers (rectal for children under 2, axillary for older children).
- Tympanic thermometry served as the gold standard for fever detection.
Main Results:
- Rectal thermometry showed 46.67% sensitivity and 92.19% specificity.
- Electronic forehead thermometry had 36.08% sensitivity and 95.18% specificity.
- Axillary thermometry exhibited the lowest sensitivity (35.82%) with 90.20% specificity. Tympanic and rectal measurements showed the highest correlation (r=0.5076).
Conclusions:
- Rectal thermometry is the most accurate method for infants and young children.
- Tympanic thermometry is recommended for children over 2 years of age.
- These findings support specific thermometry methods for reliable fever diagnosis in pediatric populations.
Introduction:
The consequences of failing to notice fever in children can be serious. On the other hand, false positive reading can result in unnecesery investigation or diagnostic approach. The aim of this study was to compare different ways of body temperature measurement.
Material And Methods:
This prospective study was carried out on Pediatric Department of General Hospital in Subotica during 10 months (March-December 2006). In 263 children aged 1 month to 18 years of age, the body temperature was obtained from 4 measurement sites: tactile assesment, forehead and ear by electronic thermometer, rectal temperature in small children (up to 2 years of age) or axillar temperature in older children by mercury thermometer. Tympanic thermometry was considered as a standard for fever detection.
Results:
The sensitivity of rectal temperature to detect fever is 46.67%, while specificity is 92.19%. The sensitivity of fever detection by electronic thermometry on the forehead is lower according to rectal thermometry - 36.08%, while specificity is 95.18%. The lowest values ofsensitivity are recorded in axillar thermometry (35.82%), specificity is 90.20%. The correlation coefficient is higher between tympanic and rectal temperature measurement (r=0.5076, p<0.0005), than between tympanic and forehead measurements (r=0.5076, p<0,0005), while the lowest was between tympanic and axillar mesurement sites (r=0.4933, p<0.0005).
Conclusions:
The results of our study and literature data show that the most accurate methods of thermometry are rectal measurement of body temperature in small children and tympanic thermometry in children over 2 years of age.
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