Comparative study of various techniques to measure neonatal hypothermia

Authors

  • CD Veerbhadra Department of Paediatrics, G R Medical College Gwalior, M P, India
  • R Ambey Department of Paediatrics, G R Medical College Gwalior, M P, India
  • A Gaur Department of Paediatrics, G R Medical College Gwalior, M P, India
  • AG Shingwekar Department of Paediatrics, G R Medical College Gwalior, M P, India

Keywords:

Neonatal temperature recording, Digital thermometer, Forehead infrared thermometer, mercury thermometer, Thermister probe

Abstract

Aim-To compare different available modes (forehead infrared thermometer ,axillary temperature by thermister probe and digital thermometer, with axillary temperature by gold standard mercury thermometer) of temperature measurement in neonatal hypothermia in order to come out with most accurate one among them.
Background- Hypothermia is very important in essential newborn care as it can lead to mild to severe life threatening complication, so detecting hypothermia takes important role in its management.
Material Methods- Study Design: Setting was Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Level 3), Kamla Raja Hospital ,Gajra Raja Medical College, Gwalior, India. A Prospective study of one year (July 2010 - June 2011 ) duration done with 1690 admissions of neonatal intensive care unit (full fill inclusion criterion ) by applying Fisher test on 2×2 contingency table to get sensitivity , specificity , positive predictive value , negative predictive value and accuracy of above 4 methods by STATA 9.1 (STATA corporation, college station , TX, USA).
Results- Digital thermometer is having highest sensitivity (99.1%), specificity (98.1%), positive predictive value (97.4%) and negative predictive value(99.3%).
Conclusion- Digital axillary thermometry is the best alternative to mercury thermometer for measuring neonatal temperature compared with axillary temperature by thermister probe and forehead temperature by infrared thermometer.

 

References

Gasim GI, Musa IR, Abdien MT, Adam I. Accuracy of tympanic temperature measurement using an infrared tympanic membrane thermometer. BMC Research Notes 2013;6:194.

Padilla N, Raygoza, Diaz R, Garcia PA, Pantoja MA. Comparison Of Measurements Of Body Temperature With Four Thermometers In A Children Health Care Setting. Comparison of Thermometers. The Internet Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatology 2011; 13(2)

V Kumar, JC Shearer, A Kumar and GL Darmstad. Neonatal hypothermia in low resource settings: a review. Journal of Perinatology 2009;doi:10.1038/jp.2008.233

Lunze K, Bloom DE, Jamison DT, Hamer DH. The global burden of neonatal hypothermia: systematic review of a major challengefor newborn survival. BMC medicine 2013;11:24.

Uslu S, Ozdemir H, Bulbul A et al. A Comparison of Different Methods of Temperature Measurements in Sick Newborns; Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 2011 ; 57 ( 6 ): 418-2

Alexander D, Kelly B. Cost effectiveness of tympanic thermometry in the pediatric office setting.Clin Pediatr (Phila) 1991;30(4):57-9.

Landis RJ, Koch GG. The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 1977; 33: 159-174.

Sganga A, Wallace R, Kiehl E, Irving T, Witter L. A comparison of four methods of normal newborn temperature measurement. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs 2000;25(2):76-9.

Oncel MY, Tekgunduz AS,Ozdemir R et al. A comparision of different methods of temperature measurement by mothers and physicians in healthy newborns. Indian J Pediatr 2013;80(3):190-4.

Downloads

Published

2014-05-22

How to Cite

Veerbhadra , C., Ambey , R., Gaur , A., & Shingwekar , A. (2014). Comparative study of various techniques to measure neonatal hypothermia. International Journal of Medical Science Research and Practice, 1(1), 16–19. Retrieved from https://ijmsrp.isroset.org/index.php/j/article/view/4

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2014): Volume-1, Issue-1 May 2014

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2025 CD Veerbhadra , R Ambey

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors contributing to this journal agree to publish their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.