The temperature measurement will be taken on each patient enrolled at a single time by the caregiver for that patient. As the measurements do not depend on which side they are taken, the most convenient side will be chosen. Each patient will only be included once
The research nurse will record the core temperature from the monitor on the CRF and, within the next 5 minutes, take the peripheral temperature with the tympanic thermometer three times in a row, recording all three values on the CRF. Subsequently a second operator will always take the temperature 3 times within 5 minutes of the gold standard measurement. The gold standard (reference tests), as indicated in the literature, can be either the thermometer inserted in the probe placed in the pulmonary artery, or the thermometer inserted in the bladder catheter or oesophageal probe, or directly a rectal thermometer.
Only the first tympanic measurement will then be used to assess accuracy against the gold standard. The other measurements above will only be evaluated for inter and intra reliability. The unit under study is therefore the individual patient at a precise point in time
