Entropy and compression: two measures of complexity.

Teresa Henriques1, Hernâni Gonçalves, Luís Antunes

  • 1Health Information and Decision Sciences Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Instituto de Telecomunicações, Porto, Portugal; Centre for Research in Health Technologies and Information Systems - CINTESIS, Porto, Portugal.

Summary

Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity approximations effectively distinguished fetuses at risk of hypoxia from healthy ones using fetal heart rate monitoring. Lower umbilical artery blood pH correlated with reduced entropy and compression indices, suggesting combined measures improve fetal outcome prediction.

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