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Analysis of electroencephalograms in Alzheimer's disease patients with multiscale entropy

The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimers disease (AD) patients using multiscale entropy (MSE). MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant differences between both subject groups at electrodes F3, F7, Fp1, Fp2, T5, T6, P3, P4, O1 and O2 (p-value < 0.01, Students t-test). These findings indicate that the EEG complexity analysis performed on deeper time scales by MSE may be a useful tool in order to increase our knowledge of AD.

Electroencephalogram analysis with approximate entropy to help in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimers disease (AD) is the main cause of dementia in western countries. Although a definite diagnosis of this illness is only possible by necropsy, the analysis of nonlinear dynamics in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals could help physicians in this difficult task In this study we have applied approximate entropy (ApEn) to analyze the EEG background activity of patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimers disease and control subjects. ApEn is a newly introduced statistic that can be used to quantify the complexity (or irregularity) of a time series. We have divided the EEG data into frames to calculate their ApEn. Our results show that the degree of complexity of EEGs from control subjects is higher. Applying the ANOVA test, we have verified that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the EEGs of these groups.

Electroencephalogram Background Activity Characterization with Approximate Entropy and Auto Mutual Information in Alzheimer's Disease Patients

The aim of this study was to analyze the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity in Alzheimers disease (AD) with two non-linear methods: Approximate Entropy (ApEri) and Auto Mutual Information (AMI). ApEn quantifies the regularity in data, while AMI detects linear and non-linear dependencies in time series. EEGs were recorded from the 19 scalp loci of the international 10-20 system in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls. ApEn was significantly lower in AD patients at electrodes O1, O2, P3 and P4 (p < 0.01). The AMI of the AD patients decreased significantly more slowly with time delays than the AMI of normal controls at electrodes T5, T6, O1, 02, P3 and P4 (p < 0.01). Furthermore, we observed a strong correlation between the results obtained with both non-linear methods, suggesting that the AMI rate of decrease can be used to estimate the regularity in time series. The decreased irregularity found in AD patients suggests that EEG analysis with ApEn and AMI could help to increase our insight into brain dysfunction in AD.

Applying approximate entropy and central tendency measure to analyze time series generated by schizophrenic patients

The purpose of this study is the analysis of times series generated by 20 schizophrenic patients and 20 age-matched control subjects. We used two methods for quantifying the regularity and variability in the time series. These methods were the Approximate Entropy (ApEn), and a graphical representation by means of the second-order difference plots to estimate the Central Tendency Measure (CTM). Results showed that the degree of irregularity and variability of the time series generated by the schizophrenic patients were lower than time series generated by the control group. Thus, schizophrenic patients tended to generate more regular and rhythmic series than control subjects. There was a significant difference with the ANOVA procedure (p<0.001) between time series generated by both groups. These results were in agreement with findings that schizophrenic patients were characterized by less complex neurobehavioral measurements than normal subjects.

Fuzzy Entropy Analysis of the Electroencephalogram in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease: Is the Method Superior to Sample Entropy?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia in the world, which is characterised by the loss of neurones and the build-up of plaques in the brain, causing progressive symptoms of memory loss and confusion. Although definite diagnosis is only possible by necropsy, differential diagnosis with other types of dementia is still needed. An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a cheap, portable, non-invasive method to record brain signals. Previous studies with non-linear signal processing methods have shown changes in the EEG due to AD, which is characterised reduced complexity and increased regularity. EEGs from 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched control subjects were analysed with Fuzzy Entropy (FuzzyEn), a non-linear method that was introduced as an improvement over the frequently used Approximate Entropy (ApEn) and Sample Entropy (SampEn) algorithms. AD patients had significantly lower FuzzyEn values than control subjects (p < 0.01) at electrodes T6, P3, P4, O1, and O2. Furthermore, when diagnostic accuracy was calculated using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, FuzzyEn outperformed both ApEn and SampEn, reaching a maximum accuracy of 86.36%. These results suggest that FuzzyEn could increase the insight into brain dysfunction in AD, providing potentially useful diagnostic information. However, results depend heavily on the input parameters that are used to compute FuzzyEn.

Kullback-leibler entropy analysis of the electroencephalogram background activity in alzheimer's disease patients

Alzheimers disease (AD) is the most frequent form of dementia in western countries. An early detection would be beneficial, but currently diagnostic accuracy is relatively poor. In this study, differences in information content between cortical areas in 12 AD patients and 11 control subjects were assessed with Kullback-Leibler (KL) entropy. KL entropy measures the degree of similarity between two probability distributions. EEGs were recorded from 19 scalp electrodes and KL entropy values of the EEGs in both groups were estimated for the local, distant and interhemispheric electrodes. KL entropy values were lower in AD patients than in age-matched control subjects, with significant effects for diagnosis and brain region (p < 0.05, two-way ANOVA). No significant interaction for diagnosis X region was found (p = 0.7671). Additionally a one-way ANOVA showed that KL entropy values were significantly lower in AD patients (p < 0.05) for the distant electrodes on the right hemisphere. These results suggest that KL entropy highlights information content changes in the EEG due to AD. However, further studies are needed to address the possible usefulness of KL entropy in the characterisation and early detection of AD.

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The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimers disease (AD) patients using multiscale entropy (MSE). MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant differences between both subject groups at electrodes F3, F7, Fp1, Fp2, T5, T6, P3, P4, O1 and O2 (p-value < 0.01, Students t-test). These findings indicate that the EEG complexity analysis performed on deeper time scales by MSE may be a useful tool in order to increase our knowledge of AD.