The MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database was the first generally available set of standard test material for evaluation of arrhythmia detectors, and it has been used for that purpose as well as for basic research into cardiac dynamics at about 500 sites worldwide since 1980. It has lived a far longer life than any of its creators ever expected. Together with the American Heart Association Database, it played an interesting role in stimulating manufacturers of arrhythmia analyzers to compete on the basis of objectively measurable performance, and much of the current appreciation of the value of common databases, both for basic research and for medical device development and evaluation, can be attributed to this experience. In this article, we briefly review the history of the database, describe its contents, discuss what we have learned about database design and construction, and take a look at some of the later projects that have been stimulated by both the successes and the limitations of the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database.

The impact of the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database

In this paper, we developed and evaluated a robust single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) delineation system based on the wavelet transform (WT). In a first step, QRS complexes are detected. Then, each QRS is delineated by detecting and identifying the peaks of the individual waves, as well as the complex onset and end. Finally, the determination of P and T wave peaks, onsets and ends is performed. We evaluated the algorithm on several manually annotated databases, such as MIT-BIH Arrhythmia, QT, European ST-T and CSE databases, developed for validation purposes. The QRS detector obtained a sensitivity of Se=99.66% and a positive predictivity of P+=99.56% over the first lead of the validation databases (more than 980,000 beats), while for the well-known MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, Se and P+ over 99.8% were attained. As for the delineation of the ECG waves, the mean and standard deviation of the differences between the automatic and manual annotations were computed. The mean error obtained with the WT approach was found not to exceed one sampling interval, while the standard deviations were around the accepted tolerances between expert physicians, outperforming the results of other well known algorithms, especially in determining the end of T wave.

A wavelet-based ECG delineator: evaluation on standard databases

https://www.repositorio.ufop.br/bitstream/123456789/7011/1/ARTIGO_ECGHeartBeat.pdf

ECG-based heartbeat classification for arrhythmia detection

Presents a QT database designed for evaluation of algorithms that detect waveform boundaries in the ECG. The database consists of 105 fifteen-minute excerpts of two-channel ECG Holter recordings, chosen to include a broad variety of QRS and ST-T morphologies. Waveform boundaries for a subset of beats in these recordings have been manually determined by expert annotators using an interactive graphic display to view both signals simultaneously and to insert the annotations. Examples of each morphology were included in this subset of annotated beats; at least 30 beats in each record, 3622 beats in all, were manually annotated in the database. In 11 records, two independent sets of annotations have been included, to allow inter-observer variability studies. The QT Database is available on a CD-ROM in the format previously used for the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and the European ST-T Database, from which some of the recordings in the QT Database have been obtained.

/pdf/a-database-for-evaluation-of-algorithms-for-measurement-of-2zc0t5jrkb.pdf

A database for evaluation of algorithms for measurement of QT and other waveform intervals in the ECG

An integrated method for clustering of QRS complexes is presented which includes basis function representation and self-organizing neural networks (NN's). Each QRS complex is decomposed into Hermite basis functions and the resulting coefficients and width parameter are used to represent the complex. By means of this representation, unsupervised self-organizing NNs are employed to cluster the data into 25 groups. Using the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database, the resulting clusters are found to exhibit a very low degree of misclassification (1.5%). The integrated method outperforms, on the MIT-BIH database, both a published supervised learning method as well as a conventional template cross-correlation clustering method.

/pdf/clustering-ecg-complexes-using-hermite-functions-and-self-52r8xdmson.pdf

Clustering ECG complexes using Hermite functions and self-organizing maps

The project for the development of the European ST-T annotated Database originated from a 'Concerted Action' on Ambulatory Monitoring, set up by the European Community in 1985. The goal was to prototype an ECG database for assessing the quality of ambulatory ECG monitoring (AECG) systems. After the 'concerted action', the development of the full database was coordinated by the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa and the Thoraxcenter of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Thirteen research groups from eight countries provided AECG tapes and annotated beat by beat the selected 2-channel records, each 2 h in duration. ST segment (ST) and T-wave (T) changes were identified and their onset, offset and peak beats annotated in addition to QRSs, beat types, rhythm and signal quality changes. In 1989, the European Society of Cardiology sponsored the remainder of the project. Recently the 90 records were completed and stored on CD-ROM. The records include 372 ST and 423 T changes. In cooperation with the Biomedical Engineering Centre of MIT (developers of the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database), the annotation scheme was revised to be consistent with both MIT-BIH and American Heart Association formats.

The European ST-T database: standard for evaluating systems for the analysis of ST-T changes in ambulatory electrocardiography.

The European project for the development of an ST-T annotated database originated from the 'Concerted Action' on ambulatory monitoring, set up by the European Community in 1985. The goal was to define an electrocardiographic (ECG) database for assessing the quality of ambulatory ECG monitoring (AECG) systems. Thirteen research groups from 8 countries continued providing AEGG tapes and annotating beat-by-beat the selected 2-channel records, each 2 hours in duration. ST segment and T-wave changes were identified and their onset, offset and peak beats annotated in addition to QRSs, beat types, rhythm and signal quality changes. The first set of 50 records was completed and stored on compact-disk ROM. It includes more than 200 ST segment and almost 300 T-wave changes. In cooperation with the developers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-Boston's Beth Israel Hospital (BIH) arrhythmia database, the annotation scheme was devised to be consistent with both MIT-BIH and American Heart Association (AHA) formats. >

The European ST-T database: development, distribution and use

In 1985, the European Community set up a 'Concerted Action on Ambulatory Monitoring', whose goal was to define an ECG (electrocardiography) database as a reference for assessing the quality of ambulatory ECG monitoring (AECG) analyzers. Since it is now recognized that ST-T changes are highly relevant for the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease, it was agreed that the project should concentrate on setting up a standard for annotating ST-T changes. The pilot study, completed at the end of 1986, set up a small prototype database. After the project ended, it was decided that the interest shown by research groups and manufacturers warranted developing the full database. Thirteen groups from eight countries agreed to provide AECG tapes and to contribute to the annotations. So far, 106 AECG records, out of 175 submitted, have been admitted to the database and 96 have each been annotated by two different groups. Disagreements between the annotations have been analyzed for estimation of reliability. The first release of the database comprises 50 annotated records stored on CD-ROM. >

G. Distante

Papers

The European ST-T database: standard for evaluating systems for the analysis of ST-T changes in ambulatory electrocardiography.

The European ST-T database: development, distribution and use

An annotated database aimed at performance evaluation of algorithms for ST-T change analysis