Unreliability of the infrared tympanic thermometer in clinical practice: a comparative study with oral mercury and oral electronic thermometers.
BACKGROUND
This study was designed to determine the magnitude and frequency of measurement errors with infrared tympanic thermometers in the clinical setting.


METHODS
In a convenience sample of 137 adult inpatients, we compared body temperatures measured by a Diatek 9000 Infrared Aural Thermometer and an IVAC 2090 CoreCheck Tympanic Thermometer between themselves, in right versus left ears, and against concurrently measured oral temperatures using both an electronic thermoprobe and conventional glass mercury thermometer.


RESULTS
There was a significant between-brand difference of 0.6 degrees C (IVAC <Diatek) for both ears; right-versus-left ear temperature group differences were not statistically significant with either thermometer, but ear-to-ear temperature variation was large, with individual right-left differences as great as 2.5 degrees C; significant differences were found between oral and ear temperatures with the IVAC thermometer (0.5 degrees C, ear <oral) but not with the Diatek thermometer; no significant difference was found between oral electronic and mercury temperature measurements; and cerumen had no significant effect on ear temperature measurements.


CONCLUSIONS
The variability and inaccuracy of temperatures measured by the infrared tympanic thermometers were sufficiently large to suggest that the use of these devices for routine thermometry may be potentially hazardous.
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 35294-0018, USA.
J G
JG
Modell
C R
CR
Katholi
S M
SM
Kumaramangalam
E C
EC
Hudson
D
D
Graham
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D002571:Cerumen; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury; D008875:Middle Aged; D009061:Mouth Mucosa; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013817:Thermography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013821:Thermometers / Q000592:standards*; D014432:Tympanic Membrane
D008628:Mercury