Validation of the thermometer as a determining factor in the effectiveness of temperature measuring in covid-19 infection

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND. The COVID-19 pandemic has reached more than five million Infections and three hundred thousand deaths worldwide, all of which require the assessment of prognostic factors;In addition to advanced age, comorbidities or the Inflammatory response, IS also evident the need to assess body temperature to determine contagion, exposure, especially In people with different risk factors, and different evolutionary patterns to know Its Influence on clinical outcomes. METHODS. A cross-sectional study of temperature measurements was performed on 42 volunteer subjects, to assess the reliability in terms of agreement between two thermometers used in body temperature measurements;the measurements of 2 thermometers in the frontal and ear areas were compared in 2 rooms (higher and lower lighting). Confidence intervals were compared and the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was calculated to obtain the statistical differences, providing limits of agreement from the calculation of the confidence interval for the difference of two measurements. RESULTS. With a 95 % confidence Interval, ap <0.5 and under the measured conditions, and on our sample of subjects, we observe that the correlation of the measurements does not have significant statistical difference, but Indeed In different environments with greater lighting. CONCLUSIONS. The average body temperature (front) measured with the laser thermometer IS greater than the temperature (front) measured With the Testo thermometer. There IS a Significant difference In the measurements made In the 2rooms, being greater In the room With less lighting. There IS correlation In the temperature measurements of the same instrument in the frontal zone and In the ear. Laser thermometers are more effective in detecting variations In body temperature, and more assertive in identifying one of the symptoms most associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.