Exploring radial pulse analysis using multi-scale entropy measures for pathologic condition indication

Abstract

Radial pulse analysis — an important tool for patient diagnosis in Traditional Indian Medicinal(TIM) Science — Ayurveda, has been attempted for obtaining measures distinguishing between pathologic and healthy state condition. Electret based capacitance sensing mechanism & instrumentation has been build and implemented for sensing radial pulse perturbations. Pulse signal from healthy individual as well as pathologically identified & evaluated patients — parkinsonism, herpes-zoster infection condition and ischemic heart disease condition have been logged for extended period. Radial pulse analysis, using multi scale permutation entropy (MSPE), has been implemented. Identifiably distinct trajectory variations, of MSPE values for radial pulse signal in healthy and pathologic conditions have been observed. MSPE values at higher scales, for radial pulse signal in pathologic condition, result in lower values as compared to those for healthy condition. Objective evaluation of radial pulse signal for obtaining results similar to those arrived by a trained TIM physician, using sense perception, can contribute towards development of low-cost, value added, diagnostic tool.