Tympanic Membrane or Temporal Artery Thermometry: Which is More Reliable for Children?

Background Evaluation of body temperature is one of the oldest known diagnostic methods and is still an important sign of health and disease, both in everyday life and in medical care. Objective To assess and compare the accuracy of temperature measured by tympanic membrane thermometry and temporal artery thermometry with reference to the axillary thermometry among children. Temperature of 300 children between the age group of 2-6 years was assessed and compared by using digital axillary thermometer (Omron MC-246), infra red tympanic membrane thermometry (infinity check FDIR-V1) and infra red temporal artery thermometry (infinity check FDIR-V1). Results More than half (53 %) of children were in age group of 4-6 years and majority (69 %) of the children were male. The range of temperature measured by tympanic membrane thermometry (92.6-99.5) was more close to the range of temperature measured by axillary thermometry (92-100.2) as compared to the temporal artery thermometry (92.6-99.5). The calculated F value by using ANNOVA showed that (222.2) is greater than tabulated F value (2.99) at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion Axillary thermometry cannot be replaced by tympanic membrane thermometry in paediatric population where a quick, comfortable and more accurate thermometry is required.