Comparison of Oral, Tympanic and Fresh Urine Temperature in Healthy Young Adult Males in Kingdom Suadi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Core body temperature (CBT) is commonly evaluated by measuring oral (OT) and tympanic membrane (TT) temperatures; however, there are considerable debates on which of these methods is the most appropriate.

Objective: To evaluate concordance of OT and TT with CBT.

Material and Methods: OT, TT and fresh urine temperature (FUT) were measured
simultaneously in 45 apparently healthy young adult males from Buraydah, Qassim, KSA during July 2015. All readings were obtained between 7:00 and 10:00 pm according to the standard methods. FUT was used as indicator of CBT.

Results: OT (36.35±0.41° C) was significantly higher compared with TT (35.99±0.81° C, P = 0.013) as well as FUT (35.55±0.76° C, P < 0.001). TT was significantly higher compared with FUT (P = 0.003). Using one sample t-test, the difference between OT and TT (0.36±0.92° C, P = 0.011), OT and FUT (0.80±0.90° C, P < 0.001) and TT and FUT (0.44±0.80° C, P = 0.001) were significantly above zero. Disconcordance of the OT, TT and FUT measurements are further illustrated by Bland-Altman plots. There were no significant correlations between OT and TT as well as between OT and FUT. However, TT correlated positively with FUT (r = 0.48, P = 0.001).

Conclusions: OT and TT are inappropriate measures for CBT. CBT has influence on TT, but not OT.

Key words: Core body temperature, oral, tympanic, urine.