Power Spectral Entropy in the ECG of Patients Suffered from Nocturnal Frontal Lobe Epilepsy

An explorative study to assess the regularity of nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy’s sleeping disease patients with power spectral entropy and power spectral entropy variation in different sleep stages is proposed. We analyzed the ECG data from 20 subjects, including 10 patients with nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy’s sleeping disease and 10 healthy subjects. The ECG data were obtained from the PhysioBank CAP Sleep Database. The first step was to estimate the ECG power spectra. Then, the power spectra were divided into six sub-bands. The final step was to analyze each sub-band power spectral entropy. In comparison with the results obtained from the control group, the power spectral entropy in the patients suffered from nocturnal frontal epilepsy is lower in the frequency bands of 4–8 Hz, 8–16 Hz. Furthermore, the patients’ power spectral entropy in the band of 4–8 Hz is smaller than that in 1.6–4 Hz. The ECG of nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy’s sleep disease patients has different information entropy. The entropy decrease in nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy states indicates that the complexity of the heart falls and the normal physiological functions are affected. We can draw a preliminary conclusion that the main frequency band reflecting nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy is 4–8 Hz.