検温法の変遷とその方向性について

Body temperature is the most important information about the living body collected for clinical diagnosis. Mercury thermometers, developed in Europe, after being used for many years to measure body temperature, were recently replaced. Use of electronic thermometers, made of thermistors, has recently been spreading rapidly across the world as a new means of measuring body temperature. Of the sites were body temperature can be measured(oral cavity, axillary area, rectum, forehead and external auditory meatus), the oral cavity(sublingual area)is selected for body temperature measurement most frequently in foreign countries, while the axillary area has been used in Japan as the primary site of body temperature measurement since pre-war times. Since 1959, the reliabilities of body temperatures measured at various sites have been analyzed and compared. The results of this study, conducted by the authors, allowed the conclusion that the temperature in the axillary area, if measured appropriately, is highly reliable clinical information. Following the development of high-tech thermographic devices fitted with a far infrared CCD camera, body surface temperature is now measured with this type of device at international airports in Japan as a means of quarantine assessment of tourists entering Japan from countries where highly pathogenic influenza virus intection is prevalent