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

The project for the development of the European ST- T annotated Database originated from a ‘Concerted A ction’ 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 (A ECG) 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 A ECG 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.