New devices to control fever in children with COVID-19 and other acute respiratory infections

Abstract

Introduction. When performing thermometry, different measuring instruments can be used: from contact individual to remote. Doubts about the accuracy of the measurements obtained arise in the course of severe infections, impaired general well-being, a feeling of fever, headache.The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of daily monitoring of body temperature in children with COVID-19 coronavirus infection and other acute respiratory viral infections using a medical thermograph designed to graphically display the dynamics of changes in the child's body temperature during the day to monitor its variability, compared to a halystone thermometer.Materials and methods. The clinical study was performed at two clinical sites of the Academician G.N. Speransky Department of Pediatrics, Russian Medical Academy of Continuing Professional Education: the Khimki Regional Hospital and the Z.A. Bashlyaeva Children's City Clinical Hospital. The study included 120 children aged from 3 months to 3 years, divided into 4 groups. Group 1 and 2 were children with ARI, Group 3 and 4 were children with COVID-19. Body temperature in the 1st and 3rd groups was measured only by a halistane thermometer; in the 2nd and 4th groups - by a new generation intellectual thermograph with halistane thermometer control in the specified time intervals.Results. The study obtained high reliability of indicators of the new thermograph, designed to graphically display the dynamics of changes in body temperature during the day, compared with the halistane thermometer, commonly used in hospitals.Conclusions. The thermograph registers the child's body temperature with high reliability, which makes it possible to react to its changes in time. The use of thermograph makes it possible to set the critical value of body temperature at its rise for each user individually depending on his premorbid background, which is especially important in the group of children with a high risk of febrile convulsions and microcirculatory disorders in terms of prevention of the possible development of adverse events.