International Journal of Nursing

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Diagnostic Accuracy of an Infrared Tympanic Thermometer for Use with Adults
Seong-Hi Park, Hee Seon Lee, Mi Jeong Kwack, Yun Su Cho, Chang-Bum Kang

Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of infrared tympanic temperaturemeasurements compared to other methods of measuring temperature to detect fever in adults. Studies published between 1966 and 2012 from periodicals indexed in Ovid Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane, KoreaMed, NDSL, KERIS and other databases were selected using the following keywords: “infrared thermometer.” QUADAS-II was utilized to assess the internal validity of the diagnostic studies. Selected studies were analyzed through a meta-analysis using MetaDisc 1.4.The analysis included fifteen diagnostic studies with high methodological quality, involving 1,468 subjects in total. The results of the metaanalysis showed that the pooled sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of infrared tympanic thermometers in adults over 18 years were 0.59 (95% CI 0.55, 0.63), 0.91 (95% CI 0.90, 0.92), and 0.85, respectively. For oral temperature readings, the pooled sensitivity was 0.61(95% CI 0.53, 0.68), the pooled specificity was 0.93 (95% CI 0.90, 0.95), and the AUC was 0.74. The meta-analysis results of infrared tympanic temperature in this study wereinterpreted in comparison to other non-invasive temperature measurement systems. The results of this study found that the diagnostic accuracy of infrared tympanic temperature measurements was not less than that of oral temperature measurements.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijn.v1n2a9