Application of the Entropy of Approximation for the Nonlinear Characterization in Patients with Chagas Disease

Miguel Vizcardo1, Miriam Manrique1, Antonio Ravelo Garcia2
1Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa, 2Universidad Las Palmas de Gran Canaria


Abstract

Chagas Disease American trypanosomiasis is caused by a flagellated parasite: Trypanosoma cruzi, transmitted by an insect of the genus Triatoma, and also by blood transfusions. In Latin America, the number of people infected is approximately 8 million and it is found in 21 countries according WHO (OMS) It is our interest to develop a non-invasive and low-cost methodology capable of detecting any early alteration of cardiac production by T. cruzi. It is our interest to develop a non-invasive and low-cost methodology capable of detecting any early alteration of cardiac production by T. cruzi. For this, we analyzed the 24-hour Holter ECG records in 107 patients with ECG abnormalities (CH2), 58 patients without ECG abnormalities (CH1) who had positive serological results for Chagas disease and 83 volunteers without positive serological results. Chagas disease (CONTROL). We used the approximate entropy to quantify the regularity of the electrocardiograms (ECG) in the three groups. We analyzed 288 ECG segments per patient. Significant differences were found between the CONTROL and CH2 groups, which was used to stratify the risk in the CH1 group.