DETERMINATION OF NORMAL EAR TEMPERATURE WITH AN INFRARED-EMISSION DETECTION THERMOMETER

Study Objective: To determine normal body temperature with an infrared emission detection ear thermometer. Design: Cross-sectional convenien ce sample. Setting: Four acute and long-term health care facilities. P articipants: Subjects who denied recent potentially febrile illness an d ingestion of medications affecting normal body temperature. Results: Two thousand four hundred forty-seven subjects aged 12 hours to 103 y ears were enrolled. Ear temperatures were normally distributed for eac h of eight age groups. There were differences in mean temperature amon g different age groups (P<.001, by ANOVA) and a striking cutoff at ado lescence; the mean temperature for children aged 3 days to 10 years wa s 36.78+/-0.47-degrees-C, as compared to 36.51+/-0.46-degrees-C for su bjects 11 years and older (P<.001, by t test). Temperatures were highe r in female subjects and showed the characteristic diurnal variation o f normal body temperature in five subjects studied longitudinally. The reproducibility of the ear thermometer was better than that of a comm only used electronic thermometer at the oral and axillary sites. Concl usion: The infrared emission detection ear thermometer is an accurate means of assessing normal body temperature without using corrective of fsets to estimate temperature at other body sites. On the basis of the se data, the 95th percentile for infrared emission detection temperatu re in children younger than 11 years old was 37.6-degrees-C. The 99th percentile was 37.9-degrees-C for children younger than 11 years old a nd 37.6-degrees-C for people 11 years or older. Because only 1% of nor mal people have an infrared emission detection temperature higher than these values, these may represent appropriate cutoffs for fever scree ning using this device.