The STAFF III database have gone public at Physionet! https://physionet.org/physiobank/database/staffiii/
The STAFF III database was acquired during 1995–96 at Charleston Area Medical Center (WV, USA) where single prolonged balloon inflation had been introduced to achieve optimal results of percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography (PTCA) procedures, replacing the typical series of brief inflations. The lead investigator Dr. Stafford Warren designed the study protocol together with Dr. Galen Wagner at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA); Dr. Michael Ringborn (Blekinge Hospital, Karlskrona, Sweden) was responsible for data acquisition. The database consists of ECG recordings from 104 patients, accounting for substantial inter-patient variability in reaction to prolonged balloon inflation as well as variability of heart rhythm and waveform morphology. Only patients receiving elective PTCA in one of the major coronary arteries were included. Patients suffering from ventricular tachycardia, undergoing an emergency procedure, or demonstrating signal loss during acquisition, were excluded.
Since its acquisition, the STAFF III Database has been distributed by Prof. Leif Sörnmo (Lund University, Sweden), responsible for the acquisition equipment and software. The use of the STAFF III database has broadened considerably over the years, with importance for several other research problems than high-frequency ECG analysis. Although the original study protocol of the database was designed to address a set of clinical issues, the database has turned out to be highly valuable also for developing, improving, and evaluating a wide range of signal processing techniques. This database has prompted methodological development in many areas related to ischemia, see the review by Laguna and Sörnmo (2014), were the use of high performance computing platforms as NANBIOSYS are used for the analysis.
The database was prepared for PhysioNet by:
- Pablo Laguna, Prof., Zaragoza University, Spain (laguna@unizar.es)
- Leif Sörnmo, Prof., Lund University, Sweden (leif.sornmo@bme.lth.se)
- Juan Pablo Martínez, Assoc. Prof., Zaragoza University, Spain (jpmart@unizar.es)