RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Clinical accuracy of infrared temperature measurement devices: a comparison against non-invasive core-body temperature
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 157
OP 163
DO 10.7861/clinmed.2022-0252
VO 23
IS 2
A1 Thomas Holder
A1 Frances Sophie Woodley Hooper
A1 David Yates
A1 Zion Tse
A1 Samadhan Patil
A1 Ahmed Moussa
A1 Lucy Batten
A1 Vignesh Radhakrishnan
A1 Mark Allison
A1 Catherine Hewitt
A1 Ada Keding
A1 Greg Forshaw
A1 Vijay Jayagopal
YR 2023
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/23/2/157.abstract
AB During the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the implementation of non-contact infrared thermometry (NCIT) became an increasingly popular method of screening body temperature. However, data on the accuracy of these devices and the standardisation of their use are limited. In the current study, the body temperature of non-febrile volunteers was measured using infrared (IR) thermography, IR tympanic thermometry and IR gun thermometry at different facial feature locations and distances and compared with SpotOn core-body temperature. Poor agreement was found between all IR devices and SpotOn measurements (intra-class correlation coefficient <0.8). Bland–Alman analysis showed the narrowest limits of agreement with the IR gun at 3 cm from the forehead (bias = 0.19°C, limits of agreement (LOA): −0.58°C to 0.97°C) and widest with the IR gun at the nose (bias = 1.40°C, LOA: −1.15°C to 3.94°C). Thus, our findings challenge the established use of IR thermometry devices within hospital settings without adequate standard operating procedures to reduce operator error.