Infrared thermometers fail test for children with fever
1 April 2011
Fresh evidence has cast doubt on the accuracy of tympanic (ear) and infrared skin thermometers when used to detect fever in young children.
An Italian study comparing 2 types of infrared skin thermometers with a digital thermometer measuring armpit temperature found the infrared type overestimated patients' temperature in more than half of all measurements.
The emergency department study of 356 children, aged 13 to 31 months, found infrared thermometers showed a high specificity but a low sensitivity in detecting the 49 children with fever.
The results suggested the thermometers "cannot replace traditional thermometers as gold standard [best available test] for detecting fever in children", the authors wrote in a letter to Archives of Diseases in Childhood (2011, online 15 Mar).
The comment follows the first study of tympanic thermometers in a general population of children, published last year, which also found them "unacceptable" (Arch Dis Child 2010; 95: 974-8).
The study of 100 children aged up to 18 years found that compared with measurements taken in the rectum (back passage), the mean temperatures of the tympanic thermometers differed significantly.
While everyone would welcome an alternative to invasive measurement, accuracy is vital as body temperature influences decisions about diagnosis, investigation and treatment of children, the authors said. "False measurements can have great consequences", they said.
Last Reviewed: 01 April 2011
- 1. Trevisanuto D, Martellan B, Zanconato S, et al. Accuracy of infrared skin thermometers in children. Arch Dis Child. 2011 Mar 15. [Epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1136/adc.2011.213330. http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2011/03/14/adc.2011.213330.extract (accessed Apr 2011).
2. Paes BF, Vermeulen K, Brohet RM, et al. Accuracy of tympanic and infrared skin thermometers in children. Arch Dis Child 2010; 95: 974-8. doi:10.1136/adc.2010.185801. http://adc.bmj.com/content/95/12/974.abstract (accessed Apr 2011).
