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Entropy Index as a Measure of Heartbeat Irregularity

Rudolph C. Hwa
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Abstract

A method is proposed to analyze the heartbeat waveform that can yield a reliable characterization of the structure after only a few pulses. The measure suggested is entropy index that is related to the one found effective in describing chaotic behaviors in a wide variety of physical systems. When applied to the ECG data that include ventricular fibrillation, the index is shown to change drastically within a few pulses. Wavelet analysis is used to exhibit different scaling behaviors in different phases.

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Rudolph C. Hwa. 1998-09-29. Entropy Index as a Measure of Heartbeat Irregularity. https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9809041

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