A DATABASE OF CARDIAC-ARRHYTHMIAS

Objective: To describe a database of cardiac arrhythmia recordings, us eful for the development and testing of ECG rhythm processing or monit oring algorithms and devices. Methods: The raw data were acquired with in the Wisconsin-Dane County emergency medical technician-defibrillati on program and contained emergency rhythm recordings of an average len gth of 30 minutes. The raw data were integrated into a software platfo rm designed for the annotation and visualization of the recordings. Re sults: Currently the database contains the following arrhythmia episod es: ventricular fibrillation (56). asystole (65). electromechanical di ssociation (31). and other arrhythmias (42). The software, resident on personal computers. also can transmit any of the database recordings, through digital-to-analog converter board, to a device under test. Co nclusions: The database technique described will provide a useful mean s of objectively assessing electronic devices for their ability to det ect arrhythmias. The database is unique in that it contains lengthy ep isodes of arrhythmias. The database will be extended to include additi onal cases.