International Journal Bioautomation (Dec 2014)
ECG Database Applicable for Development and Testing of Pace Detection Algorithms
Abstract
This paper presents an ECG database, named 'PacedECGdb' (available at http://biomed.bas.bg/bioautomation/2014/vol_18.4/files/PacedECGdb.zip), which contains different arrhythmias generated by HKP (Heidelberger Praxisklinik) simulator, combined with artificially superimposed pacing pulses that cover the wide ranges of rising edge (from <10 µs to 100 µs) and total pulse durations (from 100 µs to 2 ms) and correspond to various pacemaker modes. It involves a total number of 1404 recordings - 780 representing 'pure' ECG with pacing pulses and 624 that comprise paced ECGs corrupted by tremor. The signals are recorded with 9.81 µV/LSB amplitude resolution at 128 kHz sampling rate in order to preserve the steep raising and trailing edges of the pace pulses. To the best of our knowledge, 'PacedECGdb' is the first publicly available paced ECG database. It could be used for development and testing of methods for pace detection in the ECG. The existence of ECGs corrupted by tremor (the only physiological noise that could compromise the methods for pacing pulses detection) is an advantage, since such signals could be applied to define the signal-to-noise level for correct operation of the algorithm, or for improvement of the noise immunity of a method that is under development. The open access of the database makes it suitable for comparative studies including different algorithms.
