title: A comparison of mercury and digital clinical thermometers.
abstract: A primarily clinical trial has been undertaken to investigate and compare the use of mercury and digital thermometers in a ward situation. Both laboratory and clinical studies show that there is no significant difference in the average accuracy of the two types of thermometers, however there is a greater fluctuation of readings of temperature when using electronic thermometers. In clinical studies between 9 and 23% of repeated measurements using an electronic thermometer differ by 0.5 degrees C or more whilst the corresponding range for mercury thermometers is 0.6%. It is also shown that when making clinical measurements with mercury thermometers there is no clinical advantage in using a measurement time longer than 3 minutes.
mesh_terms: D001831:Body Temperature; D004582:Electronics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury; D013821:Thermometers / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D008628:Mercury