Tympanic thermometry in heat stroke: is it justifiable?

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
• Physiology

Background:

• Heat stroke is a critical medical emergency requiring rapid diagnosis and severity assessment for effective treatment.
• Accurate core body temperature measurement is vital for managing heat stroke.
• Tympanic membrane thermometry has been proposed as a reliable indicator of core body temperature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of tympanic membrane thermometry compared to rectal and skin thermometry in diagnosing heat stroke severity.
• To assess the utility of tympanic thermometry in a sheep model of induced heat stroke.

Main Methods:

• A sheep model was used to induce heat stroke.
• Body temperature was measured using tympanic membrane, rectal, and skin thermometers.
• The ability of each method to categorize heat stroke severity was compared.

Main Results:

• Tympanic membrane thermometry showed no significant advantage over rectal thermometry in classifying heat stroke severity.
• Skin thermometry proved to be an unreliable method for assessing heat stroke severity.
• Rectal thermometry remained a more dependable index for severity grading.

Conclusions:

• Tympanic membrane thermometry is not a superior diagnostic tool for heat stroke severity compared to rectal thermometry in this sheep model.
• Rectal thermometry is a more reliable method for assessing heat stroke severity.
• Skin thermometry should not be relied upon for heat stroke diagnosis and severity assessment.