Comparison of pulmonary artery, rectal, and tympanic membrane temperatures in adult intensive care unit patients.

Tympanic thermometry using infrared thermography technology offers a noninvasive, rapid temperature measurement tool which may be useful for selected intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Multiple comparisons of pulmonary artery catheter (PAC), rectal (R), and tympanic membrane (TM) temperatures were performed in nine adult ICU patients using PAC temperatures as the gold standard. The correlation between R (r = 0.93) and PAC was significantly better than TM (r = 0.74) temperatures. However, PAC (37.2 +/- 0.06 degrees C; mean +/- SEM) and TM (37.1 +/- 0.08 degrees C) temperatures were not significantly different, whereas R (37.6 +/- 0.07 degrees C) was significantly warmer than both (P less than .05). Differences between either R (+0.4 degrees C) or TM (-0.1 degrees C) and PAC temperatures were consistent over selected ranges between 35 degrees C and 40 degrees C. The performance of TM and R was similar in the ability to predict PAC temperatures.