Background: During investigation and diagnosis of patients, accurate temperature measurement is of great importance. The advantages of tympanic membrane thermometry are speed (temperature reading available within seconds), safety, and ease of use. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of infrared tympanic thermometers in comparison to mercury thermometers in measurement of body temperature.
Methods: Axillary and tympanic temperature was measured simultaneously in consecutive patients using mercury glass and infrared tympanic thermometers at Omdurman Hospital, Sudan during October 2012.
Results: In total, temperature was measured in 174 patients, 95 of whom (54.6%) were male. The mean (SD) patient age and weight was 33.18 (25.07) years and 52.13 (69.85) kg. There was no significant difference in mean (SD) temperature measurement between mercury and infrared tympanic membrane thermometers, 37.29°C (0.91) versus 37.38°C (0.95), P = 0.373, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between axillary and tympanic body temperature measurements (r = 0.697, P < 0.001). The mean difference between the two readings (with limits of agreements) was - 0.093 (-0.20; 0.02) °C.
Conclusion: In this study, tympanic membrane thermometry is as reliable and accurate as axillary mercury glass thermometry. Thus, tympanic thermometry can be used in clinical practice, especially in the emergency setting, where ease of use and speed of obtaining the temperature reading are important.