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Tympanic thermometry--normal temperature and reliability
Edward Purssell1, Alison While, Billie Coomber
1King's College London, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Aim:
Clinical measurements such as temperature are commonly used for screening and diagnosis. However, little is known about the reliability of specific thermometers or measurement techniques.
Methods:
This study sought to define normal tympanic temperature and to assess the reliability of tympanic thermometry. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 244 children aged between one and six years at a paediatric outpatients department had their temperature recorded three times in each ear using a Braun Thermoscan thermometer.
Results:
Mean temperature was 36.65 degrees C with an overall repeatability statistic of 0.78 degrees C, 0.55 degrees C in the left ear and 0.64 degrees C in the right. The level of measurement error did not increase with temperature, or differ between ages. Environmental temperature had only a moderate effect on temperature, and there was no effect from environmental humidity.
Conclusions:
Tympanic thermometry using the Braun ThermoScan is a reliable method of temperature measurement, with a temperature change of approximately 0.6 degrees C being significant. Although the effects of environmental conditions were slight, these were in temperate conditions. This study should be repeated for other models of thermometer.
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