Utility of infrared thermography for screening febrile subjects

Results The correlations between infrared thermography temperatures and core temperature were only moderate (r=0.36-0.44), albeit statistically significant. The temperature recorded by infrared thermography was inversely proportional to the distance from the camera. There were 113 (7.4%) subjects with a core temperature of 38°C or above. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the three infrared thermography measurements were around 0.8. However, the maximum sensitivity achieved at a low cut-off temperature of 35°C was only 0.87 (for frontal and lateral infrared thermography views), resulting in 13% of febrile subjects being missed. The maximum forehead temperature in general had the poorest performance among the three infrared thermography views.