OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess knowledge, perception and management of fever by parents. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey among 392 parents of children attending locally a paediatric clinic at The Royal Oldham Hospital. The main outcome measures were answers to questions covering a variety of aspects of the knowledge, perception and management of fever by parents. RESULTS: Almost half the parents used a liquid crystal forehead thermometer. Most could not use a glass thermometer. Thirty per cent did not know normal body temperature and would have treated children with a temperature below 38 degrees C. Sixty-four per cent treated fever with both paracetamol and tepid sponging. Most parents awakened children at night for antipyretics. Eighty-one per cent thought that untreated fever was most likely to cause fits or brain damage and 7% thought it could cause death. CONCLUSION: Parents perceive fever as being dangerous. They have a poor knowledge and measure it inaccurately. Needless consultations and hospital admissions could be avoided by a change in perception. (+info)
Tympanic membrane temperature as a measure of core temperature.
(2/175)
BACKGROUND: Ear thermometers are becoming popular as a method for measuring deep body (core) temperature. AIM: To determine the variability of a single user's tympanic membrane (ear) temperature measurements. SUBJECTS: Forty-two, afebrile, healthy children, and 20 febrile children with acute burns. RESULTS: In afebrile children measurements made in both ears (and within just a few minutes of each other) differed by as much as 0.6 degree C. Operator measurement error, sw of three consecutive measurements, in the same ear, was 0.13 degree C. In the group of febrile, burned children, core temperature was measured hourly at a number of sites (ear, rectum, axilla, bladder). A peak in core temperature occurred approximately 10-12 hours after the burn. Measurement error was calculated in 14 febrile, burned children with a peak temperature in excess of 38 degrees C. For the left ear, measurement error was 0.19 degree C and for the right ear, 0.11 degree C. In the febrile children agreement between the ears was poor. The limits of agreement were 0.4 degree C to -0.8 degree C. It was not possible to predict the occasions when the temperature differences between the ears would be large or small. CONCLUSIONS: The measurement error of one recording from the next is probably acceptable at about 0.1 to 0.2 degree C. To limit the variations in temperature of one ear to the other, measurements should be restricted to one of the ears whenever possible and the same ear used throughout the temperature monitoring period. Nurses and parents should take more than one temperature reading from the same ear whenever possible. (+info)
Thermal image analysis of electrothermal debonding of ceramic brackets: an in vitro study.
(3/175)
This study used modern thermal imaging techniques to investigate the temperature rise induced at the pulpal well during thermal debonding of ceramic brackets. Ceramic brackets were debonded from vertically sectioned premolar teeth using an electrothermal debonding unit. Ten teeth were debonded at the end of a single 3-second heating cycle. For a further group of 10 teeth, the bracket and heating element were left in contact with the tooth during the 3-second heating cycle and the 6-second cooling cycle. The average pulpal wall temperature increase for the teeth debonded at the end of the 3-second heating cycle was 16.8 degrees C. When the heating element and bracket remained in contact with the tooth during the 6-second cooling cycle an average temperature increase of 45.6 degrees C was recorded. (+info)
Temperature measured at the axilla compared with rectum in children and young people: systematic review.
(4/175)
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the agreement between temperature measured at the axilla and rectum in children and young people. DESIGN: A systematic review of studies comparing temperature measured at the axilla (test site) with temperature measured at the rectum (reference site) using the same type of measuring device at both sites in each patient. Devices were mercury or electronic thermometers or indwelling thermocouple probes. STUDIES REVIEWED: 40 studies including 5528 children and young people from birth to 18 years. DATA EXTRACTION: Difference in temperature readings at the axilla and rectum. RESULTS: 20 studies (n=3201 (58%) participants) had sufficient data to be included in a meta-analysis. There was significant residual heterogeneity in both mean differences and sample standard deviations within the groups using different devices and within age groups. The pooled (random effects) mean temperature difference (rectal minus axillary temperature) for mercury thermometers was 0.25 degrees C (95% limits of agreement -0.15 degrees C to 0.65 degrees C) and for electronic thermometers was 0. 85 degrees C (-0.19 degrees C to 1.90 degrees C). The pooled (random effects) mean temperature difference (rectal minus axillary temperature) for neonates was 0.17 degrees C (-0.15 degrees C to 0. 50 degrees C) and for older children and young people was 0.92 degrees C (-0.15 degrees C to 1.98 degrees C). CONCLUSIONS: The difference between temperature readings at the axilla and rectum using either mercury or electronic thermometers showed wide variation across studies. This has implications for clinical situations where temperature needs to be measured with precision. (+info)
Increased temperature of malignant urinary bladder tumors in vivo: the application of a new method based on a catheter technique.
(5/175)
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of any thermal difference between malignant tumors and inflammatory benign lesions of the human urinary bladder and to determine whether it correlates with tumor angiogenesis quantification. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A new method, developed in our institute, is introduced to detect temperature in human urinary bladder, in vivo. This method is based on a thermography catheter. We calculated the differences of the temperature of the solid tumor and of a normal area (Delta T) on 20 subjects (mean age, 72.5 years; 95% confidence interval [CI], 68.5 to 76.4). According to the biopsy histology, Eight (40%) patients had benign tumors, and 12 (60%) had malignant tumors. RESULTS: We found significant differences of Delta T between patients with benign and malignant tumor (P <.001). Also, differences were found for the mean values of angiogenesis level between malignant and benign tumors (P =.0261), and a moderated positive correlation was estimated between the degree of angiogenesis and Delta T (P =.02). Based on logistic regression analysis, we found that a 1-degree increase of Delta T triples the odds of a patient having a malignant tumor (odds ratio = 2.91; 95% CI, 1.97 to 7.78; P <.001), adjusted for the degree of angiogenesis (P =.0236) and the grade of tumor (P <.001). A threshold point of Delta T = 0.7 degrees C was determined, with sensitivity 83% and specificity 75%. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the calculated difference of temperature between normal tissue and neoplastic area could be a useful criterion in the diagnosis of malignancy in tumors of the human urinary bladder. (+info)
Optic nerve circulation and ocular pressure: contribution of central retinal artery and short posterior ciliary arteries and the effect on oxygen tension.
(6/175)
Blood-flow rate in the optic nerve of the rhesus monkey 4 mm. behind the globe monitored by the heated thermocouple and tissue p02 measurement is found to be influenced by ocular pressure level. Ligation of central retinal artery reduced flow rate to 79 per cent of normal but did not influence the effect of IOP on blood-flow rate. Ligation of short posterior ciliary arteries reduced blood-flow rate to 21 per cent of normal and virtually eliminated the IOP effect. Raising IOP to above systolic arterial pressure level reduced blood-flow rate to 17 per cent of normal. At IOP levels greater than 50 mm. Hg, the reduction in blood-flow rate and in Po becomes marked and may be sufficient to produce primary lesions at this site. (+info)
Preferential vascular-based transfer from vagina to the corpus but not to the tubal part of the uterus in postmenopausal women.
(7/175)
BACKGROUND: Vaginal administration of progesterone during infertility treatment has therapeutic advantages over oral administration. However, the reasons for this are poorly defined. To demonstrate a preferential vagina-to-uterus distribution of substances, we investigated cold distribution from vagina to the uterus and rectum. METHOD: In 10 postmenopausal women, thermoprobes were inserted into the uterine cavity and in the rectum at <9 cm or at >9 cm from the anus; temperatures were subsequently measured during 10 min flushing of vagina with cold saline. RESULTS: After 10 min, temperature decreased as follows: uterus, tubal angle: -0.22 +/- 0.07 degrees C, 10 (mean +/- SEM, n); uterus, middle cavity: -1.26 +/- 0.34 degrees C, 9; rectum, <9 cm insertion: -3.69 +/- 0.68 degrees C, 3; rectum, >9 cm insertion: -0.51 +/- 0.19 degrees C, 6. CONCLUSIONS: Despite obviously different distances to the vagina of the uterine and the low rectal probes (<9 cm) the temperature decrease occurred at the same time. Cold transfer from vagina to the uterus and rectum is probably not the result of simple diffusion but of a vascular counter-current transfer. Differential cooling of corpus and tubal angles suggests a different arterial supply; while uterine corpus is supplied from the uterine artery, the tubal angles seem to be mainly supplied from the ovarian artery via the tubal arcade. (+info)
Use of infrared emission detection thermometer in Chinese neonates.
(8/175)
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the reproducibility of Thermoscan, an infrared emission detection ear thermometer, and to establish the normal reference range of ear temperature in Chinese neonates. METHODS: Neonates were recruited from the inpatients population with exclusion of those suffering from infections. RESULTS: Forty-nine neonates were recruited with 1,115 temperature taking sessions. Mean left ear temperature was 36.64 degrees C +/- 0.35 degree C. Mean right ear temperature was 36.64 degrees C +/- 0.37 degree C. Clinical repeatability for left and right ear was 0.17 degree C and 0.17 degree C, respectively. CONCLUSION: Thermoscan produced reproducible results in Chinese neonates. The normal range of ear temperature for Chinese neonates is 35 degrees C to 37 degrees C. Ear temperature > 37.8 degrees C should be regarded as fever. (+info)