Abstract

PEREYRA, MARíA LUISA; PUJADAS, MóNICA; STEINFELD, PABLO  and  REVELLO, A.E. HILDA. Termometría timpánica de infrarrojos en la infancia: Valoración en un departamento de emergencia. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2003, vol.74, n.2, pp.87-91. ISSN 1688-1249.

Summary Introduction: During the last decades the infrared tympanic thermometer (TT) has been developed. The detection of the infrared rays sent by the membrane would allow the valuation of the "real" internal temperature. Clinical studies made in children have valued the efficiency of this technique and discussed results. Objective: To determine the precision and value of the tympanic thermometer in paediatric patients by a comparative analysis with the conventional mercury thermometry. Materials and methods: 114 patients between 1 month and 14 years old were studied at the paediatric emergency department of Pereira Rossell Hospital. In every case the body temperature was measured with both TT and axillar temperature. In children under 2 years old the rectal temperature was measured with a conventional mercury thermometer. Results: The results obtained by TT were not comparable with the ones obtained with the rectal temperature. The TT measured was comparable with the axillar temperature up to a cut point of 37º6 were the sensibility was 75%, specificity was 90%, predictable positive value (PPV), was 63%, and predictable negative value (PNV) was 94%; these are similar values to the ones obtained with the axillar temperature examination. Conclusions: the infrared tympanic thermometry is considered a satisfactory method, compared with the measurement of the axillar temperature, showing similar characteristics. It's less precise than rectal thermometry to detect in paediatric patients

Keywords : THERMOGRAPHY.

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