The MIT-BIH Noise Stress Test Database

This database is described in

Moody GB, Muldrow WE, Mark RG. A noise stress test for arrhythmia detectors. Computers in Cardiology 1984; 11:381-384.

Please cite this publication when referencing this material, and also include the standard citation for PhysioNet:

Goldberger AL, Amaral LAN, Glass L, Hausdorff JM, Ivanov PCh, Mark RG, Mietus JE, Moody GB, Peng C-K, Stanley HE. PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet: Components of a New Research Resource for Complex Physiologic Signals. Circulation 101(23):e215-e220 [Circulation Electronic Pages; http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/101/23/e215]; 2000 (June 13).

This database includes 12 half-hour ECG recordings and 3 half-hour recordings of noise typical in ambulatory ECG recordings. The noise recordings were made using physically active volunteers and standard ECG recorders, leads, and electrodes; the electrodes were placed on the limbs in positions in which the subjects' ECGs were not visible. The three noise records were assembled from the recordings by selecting intervals that contained predominantly baseline wander (in record 'bw'), muscle (EMG) artifact (in record 'ma'), and electrode motion artifact (in record 'em'). Electrode motion artifact is generally considered the most troublesome, since it can mimic the appearance of ectopic beats and cannot be removed easily by simple filters, as can noise of other types.

The ECG recordings were created by the script nstdbgen- using two clean recordings (118 and 119) from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, to which calibrated amounts of noise from record 'em' were added using nst. (The process of making such records is now simpler; the simplified script nstdbgen can be used with current versions of the WFDB software package to recreate these records.) Noise was added beginning after the first 5 minutes of each record, during two-minute segments alternating with two-minute clean segments. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) during the noisy segments of these records are:

Record	SNR (dB)	Record	SNR (dB)
118e24	24	119e24	24
118e18	18	119e18	18
118e12	12	119e12	12
118e06	6	119e06	6
118e00	0	119e00	0
118e_6	-6	119e_6	-6

Since the original ECG recordings are clean, the correct beat annotations are known even when the noise makes the recordings visually unreadable. The reference annotations for these records are simply copies of those for the original clean ECGs.

 Name                    Last modified      Size  Description
 Parent Directory                             -   
 118e00.atr              01-Aug-1992 23:35  4.5K  reference annotations
 118e00.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:05  2.5M  digitized signal(s)
 118e00.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:05  173   header file
 118e00.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 118e06.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:04  4.5K  reference annotations
 118e06.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:04  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 118e06.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:04  175   header file
 118e06.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 118e12.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:04  4.5K  reference annotations
 118e12.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:04  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 118e12.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:04  177   header file
 118e12.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 118e18.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:03  4.5K  reference annotations
 118e18.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:03  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 118e18.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:03  175   header file
 118e18.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 118e24.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:03  4.5K  reference annotations
 118e24.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:03  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 118e24.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:03  176   header file
 118e24.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 118e_6.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:06  4.5K  reference annotations
 118e_6.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:06  2.5M  digitized signal(s)
 118e_6.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:06  172   header file
 118e_6.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 119e00.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:09  4.7K  reference annotations
 119e00.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:09  2.5M  digitized signal(s)
 119e00.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:09  170   header file
 119e00.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 119e06.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:08  4.7K  reference annotations
 119e06.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:08  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 119e06.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:08  175   header file
 119e06.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 119e12.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:08  4.7K  reference annotations
 119e12.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:08  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 119e12.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:08  174   header file
 119e12.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 119e18.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:07  4.7K  reference annotations
 119e18.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:07  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 119e18.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:07  175   header file
 119e18.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 119e24.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:06  4.7K  reference annotations
 119e24.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:06  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 119e24.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:06  175   header file
 119e24.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 119e_6.atr              02-Aug-1992 04:10  4.7K  reference annotations
 119e_6.dat              02-Aug-1992 04:10  2.5M  digitized signal(s)
 119e_6.hea              02-Aug-1992 04:10  171   header file
 119e_6.xws              12-Dec-1999 17:29   91   WAVEScript
 ANNOTATORS              13-Oct-2000 22:32   59   list of annotators
 MD5SUMS                 13-Jul-2005 01:17  2.8K  
 RECORDS                 29-Mar-2000 10:12   93   list of record names
 SHA1SUMS                13-Jul-2005 01:17  3.3K  
 SHA256SUMS              18-Sep-2007 12:39  4.9K  
 bw.dat                  02-Aug-1992 03:39  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 bw.hea                  14-Feb-2012 18:28   93   header file
 bw.hea-                 02-Aug-1992 03:39  117   header file
 bw.xws                  12-Dec-1999 17:29   80   WAVEScript
 em.dat                  02-Aug-1992 03:39  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 em.hea                  14-Feb-2012 18:28   92   header file
 em.hea-                 02-Aug-1992 03:39  116   header file
 em.xws                  12-Dec-1999 17:29   80   WAVEScript
 ma.dat                  02-Aug-1992 03:39  1.9M  digitized signal(s)
 ma.hea                  14-Feb-2012 18:28   90   header file
 ma.hea-                 02-Aug-1992 03:39  114   header file
 ma.xws                  12-Dec-1999 17:29   80   WAVEScript
 nstdb.doc               02-Aug-1992 04:54  1.9K  
 nstdb.txt               02-Aug-1992 04:54  1.9K  
 nstdbgen                08-Nov-2002 03:01  730   
 nstdbgen-               02-Aug-1992 03:39  1.2K  
 old/                    14-Jul-2011 10:50    -