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Infrared tympanic thermometry in the pediatric intensive care unit
M J Romano1, J D Fortenberry, E Autrey
1Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Critical Care Medicine
|August 1, 1993
Summary
Noncontact infrared tympanic thermometers can estimate core body temperature in pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) patients. One model showed performance similar to rectal probes, offering a viable alternative when pulmonary artery catheters are unavailable.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric critical care medicine
- Biomedical engineering
- Clinical thermometry
Background:
- Accurate core body temperature monitoring is crucial in pediatric intensive care units (ICUs).
- Noncontact infrared tympanic thermometers offer a less invasive method for temperature assessment.
- Evaluating the accuracy of these devices against established core temperature measures is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the performance of two commercial noncontact infrared tympanic thermometers in predicting core body temperature.
- To compare the accuracy of tympanic thermometers with indwelling rectal probes and digital axillary measurements.
- To determine the clinical utility of tympanic thermometers in pediatric ICU patients.
Main Methods:
- A prospective, unblinded study involving twenty pediatric ICU patients requiring pulmonary artery catheter monitoring.
- Simultaneous temperature measurements were taken using two infrared tympanic thermometer models (core mode), an indwelling rectal probe, and digital axillary methods.
- Temperatures were compared against core body temperature measured by pulmonary artery catheters.
Main Results:
- Indwelling rectal probes demonstrated the least bias and variability compared to pulmonary artery temperature.
- Axillary temperature measurements exhibited the highest variability.
- Neither infrared tympanic thermometer showed clinically significant bias; one model had variability comparable to rectal probes, while the other had greater variability.
Conclusions:
- Rectal probes are more accurate than axillary measurements for reflecting core temperature in pediatric ICU patients.
- Both infrared tympanic thermometer models provided better estimates than digital axillary temperature.
- One tympanic thermometer model (Thermoscan Pro-1) demonstrated performance similar to rectal probes, suggesting its potential use for estimating core temperature when pulmonary artery catheters are absent.