Contributors to The Long-Term ST Database

Creation of the Long-term ST Database has been supported with dedication and enthusiasm by many engineers, cardiologists, Holter technicians, and laboratory assistants at research institutions around the world. We gratefully acknowledge their contributions. In particular, we wish to thank:

• Members of the Research Group working on the joint U.S.-Slovenian research project (1995-1998) sponsored by the U.S.-Slovenian joint funds secretariat: G. Antolic, B. Glavic, F. Jager (principal investigator), R.G. Mark, G.B. Moody, A. Smrdel, M. Skrjanc, and M. Zabukovec, who demonstrated the importance of the problem of automatic differentiation of transient ischemic ST segment episodes from non-ischemic ST events in long-term ambulatory records, and developed an initial Long-Term ST Database containing eleven ambulatory ECG records with annotated transient ischemic and non-ischemic ST episodes.
• Funders of the project of development of the Long-Term ST Database: S. Nelson, R. Stadler, and L. Stylos of Medtronic, Inc., and D. Feild of Zymed, Inc. (now at Philips Medical Systems, Oxnard) for their sincere interest in further development of the Long-Term ST Database and their additional financial support (1997 - 2001).
• Experts who carefully selected, digitized, and contributed long-term ECG recordings and the associated clinical reports:
  • Eleven 2-channel records of the initial Long-Term ST Database selected and digitized at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston (G. Antolic, F.Jager, and R.G. Mark).
  • Ten 2-channel records from the collection originally gathered by the group of the CNR Institute for Clinical Physiology, Pisa, for the European ST-T Database, which contains 2-hour excerpts of these same recordings (M. Emdin, C. Marchesi, A. Taddei, and M. Varanini).
  • Twenty-one 2-channel records from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, (G. McCallum and P. Stone).
  • Twenty 2-channel records from the CNR Institute for Clinical Physiology, Pisa, (M. Emdin, A. Taddei, and M. Varanini).
  • Six 2-channel records from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, (R.G. Mark and D. Perry).
  • Eighteen 3-channel records from the Zymed company (D. Feild and S. Stevens).
• A group of experts who contributed preprocessing software to derive diagnostic and morphology feature-vector time-series, developed software to manage signal, utility and annotation files of the Database, and developed annotation editing graphic interfaces: R. Dorn, B. Glavic, F. Jager, G.B. Moody, A. Smrdel, and M. Zabukovec.
• Members of the Working Group for their significant contributions to the realization of the Database: G. Antolic, M. Emdin, D. Feild, F. Jager, R.G. Mark, G.B. Moody, A. Smrdel, R. Stadler, and A. Taddei. They set the definition of the final annotation protocol for transient ischemic ST segment episodes and a variety of non-ischemic ST segment events, selected relevant records for annotating, and designed and balanced the Database.
• A critical group of expert clinicians (whose opinions and decisions were the gold standard for annotating transient ischemic and non-ischemic ST segment changes), who performed the task of ST annotating using the SEMIA annotating tool at their sites and during six joint meetings (G. Antolic, M. Emdin, and R.G. Mark); and a group of engineers (R. Dorn, D. Feild, F. Jager, G.B. Moody, A. Smrdel, R. Stadler, and A. Taddei) who provided essential technical support during annotation meetings.
• A group of experts who meticulously scanned and edited the Holter records to provide individual QRS annotations: F. Jager, R.G. Mark, D. Perry, and S. Stevens.
• A group that produced documentation of the Database including trend plots, and software to generate the documentation: F. Jager, R.G. Mark, G.B. Moody, K. Pierce, and A. Smrdel.
• A group that managed signal and annotation files of the Database at different sites: S. Bordigiago, I. Henry, G.B. Moody, R. Mukkamala, A. Smrdel, A. Taddei, M. Varanini, and W. Zong; and F. Jager for his continuous contributions to the realization of the Database by preprocessing the records, arranging and coordinating work of the annotators, fine tuning the Database, reviewing and verifying the ST annotations of the Database for consistency, and coordinating preparation of the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM versions of the Database.

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Updated Monday, 05-Nov-2007 13:05:34 EST