Thermometry in paediatric practice
Open accessAbstract
Body temperature is commonly measured to confirm the presence or absence of fever. However, there remains considerable controversy regarding the most appropriate thermometer and the best anatomical site for temperature measurement. Core temperature is generally defined as the temperature measured within the pulmonary artery. Other standard core temperature monitoring sites (distal oesophagus, bladder, and nasopharynx) are accurate to within 0.1-0.2 degrees C of core temperature and are useful surrogates for deep body temperature. However, as deep-tissue measurement sites are clinically inaccessible, physicians have utilised other sites to monitor body temperature including the axilla, skin, under the tongue, rectum, and tympanic membrane. Recent studies have shown that tympanic temperature accurately reflects pulmonary artery temperature, even when body temperature is changing rapidly. Once outstanding issues are addressed, the tympanic site is likely to become the gold standard for measuring temperature in children.
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“rectal, pulmonary artery, urinary bladder, and oesophageal sites) [12, 13].”
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- Authors
- El-Radhi, A. S.
- Affiliations
- Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup (GB)
- Corresponding author
- El-Radhi, A S
- Venue
- Archives of Disease in Childhood
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2006-01-11
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 351-356
- ISSN
- 0003-9888 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-2044
- PMC
- PMC2065972
- OpenAlex
- W2152757551
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 0.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Archives of Disease in Childhood (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCLA - Biblioteca de Ciencias de la Salud (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine › Thermal Regulation in Medicine
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Infrared Thermography in Medicine
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Thermoregulation and physiological responses
- Keywords
- body temperature measurement, fever, core body temperature, tympanic temperature, rectal temperature, axillary temperature, oral temperature, pulmonary artery temperature
- MeSH terms
- Axilla, Body Temperature, Child, Fever, Humans, Rectum, Skin Temperature, Thermometers, Evidence-Based Medicine
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