Accuracy and precision of four common peripheral temperature measurement methods in intensive care patients

Figures & data

Table 1 The comparison of mean body temperature in repeated measurements of the five peripheral methods of right tympanic, left tympanic, oral, axillary, and forehead

Temperature measurement methods	Statistical indices
	t	df	P-value
Right tympanic	1.00	236	0.318
Left tympanic	1.34	236	0.180
Oral	0.00	236	1.00
Axillary	0.37	236	0.706
Forehead	1.15	236	0.132

Abbreviation: df, degrees of freedom.

Table 2 Correlation between the different peripheral methods of body temperature measurements and the central nasopharyngeal method

Temperature measurement method	Nasopharyngeal methods
	Correlation coefficient (r)	P-value
Right tympanic	0.938	<0.001
Left tympanic	0.932	<0.001
Oral	0.829	<0.001
Axillary (armpit)	0.776	<0.001
Forehead	0.891	<0.001

Table 3 Diagnosing the patient with fever or without fever by the determined methods

Methods	Standard		Total
	With fever	Without fever
Right tympanic
With fever	62	0	62
Without fever	12	163	175
Left tympanic
With fever	60	0	60
Without fever	14	163	177
Oral
With fever	48	0	48
Without fever	26	163	189
Axillary
With fever	39	0	39
Without fever	35	163	198
Forehead
With fever	40	3	43
Without fever	34	160	194
Total	74	163	237

Table 4 Accuracy and precision indexes of temperature measurement methods compared to the standard nasopharyngeal method

Temperature measurement methods	Indices
	Sensitivity	Specificity	Positive predictive value	Negative predictive value	Paired t-test	Kappa coefficient
Right tympanic	83	100	100	93	1.00	88
Left tympanic	81	100	100	93	1.34	85
Oral	64	100	100	86	0.00	72
Axillary	52	100	100	82	0.37	60
Forehead	54	98	93	93	1.15	59

Figure 1 The Bland–Altman plot of right tympanic method of measuring temperature.

Figure 2 The Bland–Altman plot of left tympanic method of measuring temperature.

Figure 3 The Bland–Altman plot of oral method of measuring temperature.

Figure 4 The Bland–Altman plot of axillary method of measuring temperature.

Figure 5 The Bland–Altman plot of frontal method of measuring temperature.

Table 5 The degree of agreement between different methods of temperature measuring with standard methods

Methods for measuring temperature	Kappa (%)	P-value
Right tympanic	0.88	<0.001
Left tympanic	0.85	<0.001
Oral	0.72	<0.001
Axillary (armpit)	0.60	<0.001
Forehead	0.59	<0.001

Figure 6 Sensitivity and specificity of different methods of temperature measurement using the ROC curve.

Abbreviation: ROC, receiver operating characteristic.