Comparison of infrared ear thermometer derived and equilibrated rectal temperatures in estimating pulmonary artery temperatures

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Abstract
To investigate the clinical accuracy of infrared ear thermometer derived and equilibrated rectal temperatures in estimating core body temperature. The clinical bias (i.e., mean difference between body sites), and variability (SD of the differences) of simultaneous temperatures were compared with pulmonary artery temperatures. Clinical repeatability (pooled SD of triplicate reading differences) was also examined for three ear infrared thermometers. Prospective clinical study. A multidisciplinary, adult intensive care unit. Twenty patients with an existing pulmonary artery catheter were studied in a multidisciplinary, adult intensive care unit. A single operator using optimum ear infrared technique and masked to ear and rectal temperatures recorded triplicate measurements with each of three infrared ear thermometers, each over a 4-min period with each infrared thermometer, while an assistant recorded temperatures. Infrared and rectal temperatures were compared with a simultaneous pulmonary artery temperature. Infrared ear thermometers and rectal thermometers were calibrated daily, and pulmonary artery catheters were calibrated on removal from the patient. Patients were grouped into afebrile and febrile groups, based on initial pulmonary artery temperature. Bias and variability were compared between thermometers using analysis of variance. The three infrared ear thermometers studied provided a closer estimate of core body temperature than equilibrated rectal temperature. Clinical bias was greatest in febrile vs. afebrile intensive care unit patients.