Correspondence of accuracy of axillary rectal tympanic temperature measurements in children aged between 6 months and 5 years old, who presented to emergency service with fever

Correspondence of Accuracy of Axillary Rectal Tympanic Temperature Measurements in Children Aged Between 6 Months and 5 Years Old, Who Presented to Emergency Service with Fever Aim: We aimed to compare accuracy of axillary, rectal, tympanic thermometer measurements and difference of measurement sites in children aged between 6 months and 5 years old, who presented to Emergency Service of Adana Numune Hospital with fever. Method: 518 children were enrolled in our study, aged between 6 months and 5 years old who were in a healty state before (no systemic disease history), presented to emergency service of Adana Numune Hospital with complaints of fever. As a part of routine medical examination, digital and mercury glass thermometers used for detecting axillary and rectal temperatures. In the meantime, tympanic infrared thermometers were used for measurement of tympanic fever. Following the stabilization of patients, a questionnare was given to mothers or fathers of children which has 17 questions to answer about fever and demografic data. Results: Mean and median age of children enrolled in our study is: 26,53 ± 15,534 months, 22.0, (6 - 60 months),Female/male ratio is; 1,51/1 and mean number of sisters or brothers is 1,2 ± 1,1 (0 -11) . Mean and median time of fever in patients before administration are; 2,64 ± 1,462 hours, 2,0, (1-72 hours). 67,3 % of patients were presented to hospital with only fever, 15,4 % of them presented with fever+cough, 13,1% of them presented with fever and sour throat and 4,2 % of them presented with fever and rush. According to the questionnaire, 1,7 % of fathers of patients were illiterate, 10 % of mothers of patients were illiterate. 44,2 % of parents used Ibuprofen, 34,2 % of parents used Paracetamol as antypiretic. 77,7 %(n=404) of parents presented to the hospital without using any antipyretics. As we use rectal digital measurement as a baseline of correspondance, the mean difference of rectal digital temperature is about ~ 0,4 C0 higher than tympanic temperature, but the mean difference is about ~0,184 C0 higher if we use mercury glass thermometer instead of digital one. When we compare axillary measurements with others we observe that tympanic measurement's mean difference is 0,413 C0 higher than axillary digital measurement; and tympanic measurement is 0,603C0 higher than mercury glass axillary thermometer measurement. Conclusion: We detected that, temperature we obtain from tympanic site is 0,2-0,4C0 lower* than rectal site. Despite this, temperature we obtain from tympanic site is 0,4-0,6 C0 higher* than axillary site. So we want to emphasise measurements that we obtain from different sites need to be corrected according to the site we detected it. *(temperature changes according to the usage of whether digital or mercury glass thermometer) Key Words: Fever, Thermometer, Pediatric, Infrared