Copyright © 2012 Truong Quang Dang Khoa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Epilepsy is a medical term which indicates a common neurological disorder characterized by seizures, because of abnormal neuronal activity. This leads to unconsciousness or even a convulsion. The possible etiologies should be evaluated and treated. Therefore, it is necessary to concentrate not only on finding out efficient treatment methods, but also on developing algorithm to support diagnosis. Currently, there are a number of algorithms, especially nonlinear algorithms. However, those algorithms have some difficulties one of which is the impact of noise on the results. In this paper, in addition to the use of fractal dimension as a principal tool to diagnose epilepsy, the combination between ICA algorithm and averaging filter at the preprocessing step leads to some positive results. The combination which improved the fractal algorithm become robust with noise on EEG signals. As a result, we can see clearly fractal properties in preictal and ictal period so as to epileptic diagnosis.