II. Body Surface Temperature
History and Introduction
As early as 2800 BC, the Egyptians, using the scanning sensitivity of the fingers over the surface of the body, recognized that the body pro- duces heat, and that heat increases with disease. Further recognizing the distinction between local inflammation and fever, the Egyptians set the foundation for monitoring body surface temperature as a separate and distinct diagnostic methodology from the monitoring of core body temperature.
But the ancient diagnostic technique of feeling for heat is highly subjec- tive, and only as sensitive as the hand of the feeler. The test of tem- perature is relative to the detector. A cold hand will indicate a warm body surface that a warm hand will indicate as cold. Certainly, the hand
of an experienced physician laid upon the skin could provide much use- ful information about the temperature of the patient and the course of an illness, but eventually a more objective assessment was possible with the introduction of the clinical thermometer developed during the last century.
One of the earliest references to actually quantifying body surface tem- perature as a clinical diagnostic was in 1864 during the Civil War. Dr. Jackson Chambliss, a surgeon in the Confederate Army, used a ther- mometer to diagnose a traumatic femoral aneurysm by showing that surface temperature was decreased distally in the affected leg. 1
In more recent times, the measure- ment of the surface temperature of the human body has not been rou- tinely undertaken in many clinical en- vironments - not because the mea- surement lacks clinical significance, but because it has been difficult to acquire. Conventional mercury or electronic thermometers have gen- erally been ineffective for surface
temperature measurements for three reasons: 1) they are difficult to properly attach to the body surface, 2) they require a significant amount of time for the sensor portion of the device to equilibrate to the body
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