Preliminary assessment of the reliability and validity of infrared skin temperature measurements in Rett syndrome.
B J Byiers, A M Merbler, C C Burkitt and 2 others
PMID 36744445WHAT IT FOUND
Infrared skin temperature measurements showed acceptable stability for hands but lower reliability for feet in females with Rett syndrome.
Hand temperatures correlated moderately with parent-reported autonomic symptoms, while foot temperatures showed stronger associations with symptom severity.
Key findings
01Test-retest reliability was acceptable for hand temperatures but lower for foot temperatures, and lowest for bilateral differences.
02Autonomic symptom scores were negatively associated with maximum and average hand and foot temperatures.
03Clinical severity scores correlated with bilateral foot temperature differences and inversely with maximum foot temperatures.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was exploratory with no corrections for multiple comparisons, meaning some associations could be due to chance. The wide age range (62 months to 39 years) and long gaps between visits (average 143 days) may have reduced the reliability of the temperature measurements. Time of day and alertness levels were not controlled for, which can naturally affect body temperature. There is no gold standard test for autonomic function in Rett syndrome, so validity was assessed against a parent questionnaire rather than an objective medical marker. The sample size was small, limiting statistical power to detect subtle differences.
Declared interests
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and non-U.S. government sources. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat infrared skin temperature as a diagnostic tool for autonomic dysfunction in clinical practice. The reliability for foot temperatures was low, and the study did not establish a clear cut-off score that distinguishes typical from atypical autonomic function.