3 ms·
> if we use an anal or ear canal thermometer makes temperature vary ±0.4 °C. This part is just known, though: the usual "close enough" standard for core temper
by saurik 4y ago
> if we use an anal or ear canal thermometer makes temperature vary ±0.4 °C.
This part is just known, though: the usual "close enough" standard for core temperature is an anal temperature and everything else you have to adjust. (Everything else you say I agree with, though.)
- kqr 4y agoI know that's common wisdom, but I also have started to doubt it -- when variation is so large, does it really matter whether you measure in the ear or the butt? (For what it's worth, my local hospitals use ear canal temperatures for diagnostic purposes.)
- oefrha 4y agoOf course it does matter, look up systematic error and random error.
- kqr 4y agoBefore being very dismissive, please consider the alternative that I do know about the things you mention, and that there are other ways of looking at the situation. 1. If the ear temperature are consistently wrong (systematic error) it is very easy to debias them and they become equivalent (modulo random error) to anal temperatures. 2. Perhaps cephalic temperature is a better diagnostic tool than gut temperature to evaluate the effects of fever? After all, the brain is a more sensitive organ than the butt.
- sokoloff 4y ago> the brain is a more sensitive organ than the butt The more time I spend on the internet, the less certain of this I become.