Ear measurement of temperature is only useful for screening for fever in an adult emergency department

BMC Emergency Medicine

Table 1 Ear thermometers diagnostic performance at different cut-point for definition of fever

Temperature measurements							Screening test measures (%) (rectal measurement gold standard)								Test performance measures
Rectal temperature			Ear temperature
fever definition	no. with fever	(%)	fever definition	no. with fever	(%)	TP	sensitivity	95% CI	specificity	95% CI	PPV	95% CI	NPV	95% CI	LHR(+)	95% CI	LHR(−)	95% CI	AUC	95% CI
≥ 37.5 °C	149	25	≥ 37.5 °C	133	22	101	68	60–75	93	90–95	76	68–83	90	87–92	9.53	6.71–13.6	0.35	0.27–.43	0.88	0.85–0.92
≥ 37.7 °C	98	16	≥ 37.7 °C	79	13	59	60	50–70	96	94–98	75	64–84	93	90–95	15	okt-24	0.41	0.33–0.53	0.92	0.89–0.95
≥ 38.0 °C	41	7	≥ 38.0 °C	39	7	26	63	47–78	98	96–99	67	50–81	97	96–99	27	15–49	0.38	0.25–0.56	0.96	0.93–0.98
≥ 38.3 °C	27	5	≥ 38.3 °C	22	4	19	70	50–86	99	99–100	86	65–97	99	97–99	134	42–426	0.30	0.17–0.53	0.97	0.95–0.99
≥ 38.0 °C	41	7	≥ 37.5 °C	133	22	39	95	84–99	83	80–86	29	22–38	99.6	98–100	5.65	4.64–6.88	0.11	0.04–0.28	nc	nc
≥ 38.3 °C	27	5	≥ 37.5 °C	133	22	27	100	87–100	82	78–85	20	14–28	100	99–100	5.31	4.48–6.3	0	nc	nc	nc

nc not calculated, PPV positive predictive value, NPV negative predictive value, LHR(+) likelihood ratio positive test, LHR(−) likelihood ratio negative test, AUC area under curve, TP True positive (True negative, false positive and false negative are all calculable by using TP, no. with rectal and ear fever information)

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