Thermal mapping: Assessing the optimal sites for temperature measurement in the human body and emerging technologies

Abstract

Abstract Numerous body locations have been utilized to obtain an accurate body temperature. While some are commonly used, their accuracy, response time, invasiveness varies greatly, and determines their potential clinical and/or research use. This review discusses human body temperature locations, their accuracy, ease of use, advantages, and drawbacks. We explain the concept of core body temperature and which of the locations achieve the best correlation to this temperature. The body locations include axilla, oral cavity, rectum, digestive and urinary tracts, skin, tympanic, nasopharynx, esophagus, and pulmonary artery. The review also discusses the latest temperature technologies, heat‐flux technology and telemetric ingestible temperature pills, and the body locations used to validate these devices. Rectal and esophageal measurements are the most frequently used.

Keywords

• bioheat transfer
• core body temperature physiological monitoring
• thermometry