SynthesisBMC pediatrics2020
Diagnostic test accuracy of new generation tympanic thermometry in children under different cutoffs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC pediatrics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical Practice Guideline: The Outpatient Management of Fever in Children and Adolescents.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2026Guideline
- Association Between Pre-Admission 48-Hour Fever Burden and Outcomes in Pediatric Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infection.Mediterranean journal of hematology and infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Assessed Temperatures and Stress in Cats Using Tympanic and Rectal Thermometers.Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- What is the Difference Between the Different Types of Thermometers?Turkish archives of pediatrics · 2025Article
- Diagnostic Accuracy of Three Methods of Body Temperature Measurement in Children: A Latent Class Approach.Cureus · 2025Article
- Fever assessment in children under five: Are we following the guidelines?World journal of clinical pediatrics · 2024Article
- Clinical Accuracy of Non-Contact Forehead Infrared Thermometer Measurement in Children: An Observational Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe infrared tympanic thermometer (IRTT) is a popular method for temperature screening in children, but it has been debated for the low accuracy and reproducibility compared with other measurements. This study was aimed to identify and quantify studies reporting the diagnostic accuracy of the new generation IRTT in children and to compare the sensitivity and specificity of IRTT under different cutoffs and give the optimal cutoff.
methodsArticles were derived from a systematic search in PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, and Embase, and were assessed for internal validity by the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2). The figure of risk of bias was created by Review Manager 5.3 and data were synthesized by MetaDisc 1.4.
resultsTwelve diagnostic studies, involving 4639 pediatric patients, were included. The cut-offs varied from 37.0 °C to 38.0 °C among these studies. The cut-off 37.8 °C was with the highest sROC AUC (0.97) and Youden Index (0.83) and was deemed to be the optimal cutoff.
conclusionThe optimal cutoff for infrared tympanic thermometers is 37.8 °C. New Generation Tympanic Thermometry is with high diagnostic accuracy in pediatric patients and can be an alternative for fever screening in children.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.