Approximate entropy and support vector machines for electroencephalogram signal classification

The automatic detection and identification of electroencephalogram waves play an important role in the prediction, diagnosis and treatment of epileptic seizures. In this study, a nonlinear dynamics index–approximate entropy and a support vector machine that has strong generalization ability were applied to classify electroencephalogram signals at epileptic interictal and ictal periods. Our aim was to verify whether approximate entropy waves can be effectively applied to the automatic real-time detection of epilepsy in the electroencephalogram, and to explore its generalization ability as a classifier trained using a nonlinear dynamics index. Four patients presenting with partial epileptic seizures were included in this study. They were all diagnosed with neocortex localized epilepsy and epileptic foci were clearly observed by electroencephalogram. The electroencephalogram data form the four involved patients were segmented and the characteristic values of each segment, that is, the approximate entropy, were extracted. The support vector machine classifier was constructed with the approximate entropy extracted from one epileptic case, and then electroencephalogram waves of the other three cases were classified, reaching a 93.33% accuracy rate. Our findings suggest that the use of approximate entropy allows the automatic real-time detection of electroencephalogram data in epileptic cases. The combination of approximate entropy and support vector machines shows good generalization ability for the classification of electroencephalogram signals for epilepsy.