Background: Arteriosclerosis is one of the diseases that endanger human health. There is a large amount of information in pulse wave signals to reflect the degree of arteriosclerosis.
Objective: The degree of arteriosclerosis is assessed by analyzing pulse wave signal and calculating multi-scale entropy values.
Methods: A method based on the multiscale cross-approximate entropy of the pulse wave of the human finger is proposed to assess the degree of arteriosclerosis. A total of 86 subjects were divided into three groups. The data of 1000 pulse cycles were selected in the experiment, and the multiscale cross-approximate entropy was calculated for the climb time and pulse wave peak interval. Independent sample t-test analysis gives the small-scale cross-approximate entropy of the two time series of climb time and pulse wave peak interval as p< 0.001 in Groups 1 and 2. The large-scale cross-approximate entropy of the two time series of climb time and pulse wave peak interval is p< 0.017 in Groups 2 and 3.
Results: Using the proposed algorithm, the results showed that the small-scale cross-approximate entropy of climb time and pulse wave peak interval could reflect the degree of arteriosclerosis in the human body from the perspective of autonomic nerve function. The large-scale cross-approximate entropy of climb time and pulse wave peak interval confirmed the effect of diabetes on the degree of arteriosclerosis.
Conclusions: The results demonstrate the multiscale cross-approximate entropy is a comprehensive index to evaluate the degree of human arteriosclerosis.
Keywords: Arteriosclerosis; diabetes; multiscale cross-approximate entropy; pulse wave.