PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Emma A Dunne AU - Colm Patrick Finbarr O'Donnell AU - Lisa K McCarthy TI - Prospective comparison of thermometers used in very preterm infants AID - 10.1136/archdischild-2020-321342 DP - 2021 Nov 01 TA - Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition PG - 673--675 VI - 106 IP - 6 4099 - http://fn.bmj.com/content/106/6/673.short 4100 - http://fn.bmj.com/content/106/6/673.full SO - Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed2021 Nov 01; 106 AB - We measured temperature on admission to the neonatal unit in a cohort of 54 very preterm infants. We measured rectal temperature with a digital thermometer (Microlife MT-1931) as the gold standard (MT-R). We also measured axillary temperature with the MT (MT-A), with the Welch Allyn SureTemp Plus 692 in ‘continuous’ (WAC) mode and in the default ‘predictive’ (WAP) mode. While MT-A and WAC frequently differed from MT-R by ≥0.3°C, they were both reasonably sensitive and specific for hypothermia (MT-R <36.5°C). WAP overestimated MT-R by ≥0.5°C on 37/53 (70%) occasions and had poor sensitivity for hypothermia, identifying only 2 of 29 infants with MT-R <36.5°C as hypothermic.Data are available on reasonable request.