[Comparison of different methods of temperature measurment in children].
BACKGROUND
The consequences of failing to notice fever in children can be serious. On the other hand, false positive reading can result in unnecesery investigation or diagnostic approach. The aim of this study was to compare different ways of body temperature measurement.


METHODS
This prospective study was carried out on Pediatric Department of General Hospital in Subotica during 10 months (March-December 2006). In 263 children aged 1 month to 18 years of age, the body temperature was obtained from 4 measurement sites: tactile assesment, forehead and ear by electronic thermometer, rectal temperature in small children (up to 2 years of age) or axillar temperature in older children by mercury thermometer. Tympanic thermometry was considered as a standard for fever detection.


RESULTS
The sensitivity of rectal temperature to detect fever is 46.67%, while specificity is 92.19%. The sensitivity of fever detection by electronic thermometry on the forehead is lower according to rectal thermometry - 36.08%, while specificity is 95.18%. The lowest values ofsensitivity are recorded in axillar thermometry (35.82%), specificity is 90.20%. The correlation coefficient is higher between tympanic and rectal temperature measurement (r=0.5076, p<0.0005), than between tympanic and forehead measurements (r=0.5076, p<0,0005), while the lowest was between tympanic and axillar mesurement sites (r=0.4933, p<0.0005).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study and literature data show that the most accurate methods of thermometry are rectal measurement of body temperature in small children and tympanic thermometry in children over 2 years of age.
Pavlović
Momcilo
M
Decje odeljenje, Opsta bolnica Subotica.
Radlović
Nedeljko
N
Leković
Zoran
Z
Berenji
Karolina
K
D000293:Adolescent; D001831:Body Temperature; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005334:Fever / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013821:Thermometers