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The impact of environmental factors in pre-hospital thermistor-based tympanic temperature measurement: a pilot field study.

ABSTRACT: Few pre-hospital services have the possibility to accurately measure core temperature (T core). Non-invasive estimation of T core will improve pre-hospital decision-making regarding the triage and management of hypothermic patients. Thermistor-based tympanic temperature (T tymp) correlates well with T core in controlled studies; however, little is known about the feasibility of using T tymp under field conditions. This study assessed the impact of pre-hospital environmental factors on the accuracy of T tymp . Deep rectal temperature (T rect) was used as a substitute for T core .Normothermic volunteers (n?=?13) were exposed to four simulated field conditions producing local cooling of the head and ear canal. After exposure, T tymp was recorded every 15 s for 10 min and compared with T rect . Descriptive analysis and Bland-Altman plots were used to assess agreement.Immediately after exposure mean T tymp was low, but increased rapidly and reached an apparent steady state after 3-5 min. After 5 and 10 min, the mean temperature difference (?T rect-tymp) ranged from 1.5-3.2 °C (SD?=?0.5) and 1.2-2.0 °C, respectively. T rect remained unchanged throughout the study period.After surface cooling of head and neck, T tymp did not accurately reflect core temperature within the first 10 min of measurement. The variation of ?T rect-tymp was low after 10 min, regardless of the initial degree of cooling. With the risk of over-triage, T tymp may at this point provide an indication of T core and also exhibit a trend.ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02274597.

SUBMITTER: Skaiaa SC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4581419 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of environmental factors in pre-hospital thermistor-based tympanic temperature measurement: a pilot field study.

Skaiaa Sven Christjar SC Brattebø Guttorm G Aßmus Jörg J Thomassen Øyvind Ø

Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine 20150924

<h4>Background</h4>Few pre-hospital services have the possibility to accurately measure core temperature (T core). Non-invasive estimation of T core will improve pre-hospital decision-making regarding the triage and management of hypothermic patients. Thermistor-based tympanic temperature (T tymp) correlates well with T core in controlled studies; however, little is known about the feasibility of using T tymp under field conditions. This study assessed the impact of pre-hospital environmental fa ...[more]

PMID: 26400226

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Dataset Information

The impact of environmental factors in pre-hospital thermistor-based tympanic temperature measurement: a pilot field study.

Publications

The impact of environmental factors in pre-hospital thermistor-based tympanic temperature measurement: a pilot field study.

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