Using Different Entropies to Analyze the Heart Rate Variability of Congestive Heart Failure Patients

The purpose of this paper is to show the influence of congestive heart failure (CHF) on heart by using different entropies to apply on the group of patients with CHF and normal group. Three different entropies are used: approximate entropy (ApEn), multiscale entropy (MSE), and base-scale entropy (BsEn). We use these three entropies to measure the complexity of the heart rate variability (HRV) and also use analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze the result of entropies to discuss the feasibility of recognizing CHF patients by utilizing entropies. With the analysis results of different entropies, the influence of CHF on heart has also been clearly demonstrated. The results on the approximate entropy show that the normal young group has a higher approximate entropy value while the CHF group has a lower value. This can be explained as a healthy, strong heart that can change its heart rate freely to adapt the change of the environment or the needs of the human body, therefore the HRV will be more complex. From the ANOVA results of approximate entropy, it can be observed that the F value is larger than 1, but is still small. In other words, the approximate entropy can be used to distinguish the three groups, the effect is, however, not good. It is hard to recognize a CHF patient by using approximate entropy.