Abstract
Body temperature measurement is one of the basic methods in clinical diagnosis. The problems of thermometry—interpretation of the accuracy and repeatability of various types of thermometers—are still being discussed, especially during the current pandemic in connection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for causing the COVID-19 disease. The aim of the study was to compare surface temperatures of the human body measured by various techniques, in particular a noncontact thermometer (infrared) and contact thermometers (mercury, mercury-free, electronic). The study included 102 randomly selected healthy women and men (age 18–79 years). The Bland–Altman method was used to estimate the 95% reproducibility coefficient, i.e., to assess the degree of conformity between different attempts. Temperatures measured with contact thermometers in the armpit are higher than temperatures measured without contact at the frontal area of the head. The methods used to measure with contact thermometers and a noncontact infrared thermometer statistically showed high measurement reliability. In order to correctly interpret the result of measuring human body temperature, it is necessary to indicate the place of measurement and the type of thermometer used.
Highlights
Temperature is one of the most frequently measured physical quantities in medical practice
The average temperature value measured with a mercury contact thermometer was 36.2 ◦C, standard deviation 0.5 ◦C, and the median was equal to 36.2 ◦C
The average temperature value measured with a mercury-free contact thermometer was 36.3 ◦C, the median was equal to 36.4 ◦C, and standard deviation 0.5 ◦C
Summary
Temperature is one of the most frequently measured physical quantities in medical practice. Noncontact thermometers measure the infrared radiation emitted by an object and convert the detected energy into a temperature value. Contact (touch) thermometers, due to the properties of the thermometric body used in the device, can be divided into liquid (mercury-withdrawn, in Poland and other European Union countries, from production and sales in 2009) or alcohol, bimetallic, gas, electric and magnetic. Their operation is based, among others, on changes in volumetric or linear expansion, resistivity, thermoelectric force, or the difference of potentials at the contacts of various materials. Another division criterion, which depends on the technique used to convert the measured values into temperature values, is the division into electronic and nonelectronic thermometers
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