Reliability of infra-red tympanic thermometry (ITT).

BACKGROUND

The ability to take a patient's temperature quickly, easily, and accurately is desirable in a variety of situations. However, in order to have confidence in the values obtained, it is important to quantify the reliability of the measurement.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine the reliability of temperature measurements obtained by infra-red tympanic membrane thermometers.

METHOD

This study examined intra-tester, inter-tester and inter-instrument reliability using two commercially available tympanic membrane thermometers. Forty-four college students (mean age 20.2 +/- 3.6 yr) had their tympanic membrane temperature taken by two investigators, each using two different instruments (ThermoScan Pro-1 and FirstTemp Genius).

RESULTS

The results indicated a statistically significant difference between testers for each instrument. Similarly, there was a significant statistical difference between instruments within each tester. Correlations were moderately high (r = 0.66-0.88) between testers for each instrument, whereas correlations within instruments varied considerably between testers (r = 0.35-0.78). The intra-tester reliability was good for both testers using both instruments with all coefficients of variation (CV) less than 2%. Statistically significant differences were found between testers for each instrument and between instruments for each tester. A 2 x 2 ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for Tester and a significant Tester x Instrument interaction.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that individual investigators are able to obtain reliable temperature measures when using either the FirstTemp Genius or ThermoScan Pro-1 instruments under resting laboratory conditions. However, inter-tester and inter-instrument reliability should be considered when collecting or comparing data.