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<p>
Two sets of annotations are supplied with the data for the
<a href="/challenge/2000/">Computers in Cardiology Challenge
2000</a>. These can be identified by the file name suffixes <tt>.apn</tt>
and <tt>.qrs</tt>.
<p>
The <tt>.apn</tt> files contain apnea annotations. These are currently
available for the 35 records in the learning set only; those for the test set
will be posted here after the conclusion of the Challenge in September. (To
view these annotations, use <a
href="/physiotools/wag/rdann-1.htm"><tt>rdann</tt></a> to convert the binary
annotation files into text. If you have not used <tt>rdann</tt> previously,
see the detailed instructions <a href="#rdann-notes">below.</a>) These
annotations have been prepared on the basis of expert visual review of
simultaneously recorded respiration and oxygen saturation signals. These
additional signals can be studied for 8 records (a01er - a04er, b01er, and
c01er - c03er; these contain the same ECG data as a01 - a04, b01, and c01 -
c03, respectively).
<p>
When these files were first posted here, the following (incorrect) description
of the <tt>.apn</tt> annotation files was also posted:
<blockquote>
In these files, an "A" annotation indicates that apnea occurs during the
<em>following</em> one-minute interval, and an "N" annotation indicates that
there is no apnea during the following one-minute interval.
</blockquote>
<p>
Following is a corrected description:
<blockquote>
In each of these files, the first annotation is placed at 0 seconds and is
associated with the following one-minute interval (i.e., 0-59.99 seconds
elapsed time from the beginning of the record), the second annotation is placed
at 60 seconds and is associated with the next one-minute interval (60-119.99
seconds), etc. Each "A" annotation indicates that apnea was in progress <em>at
the beginning of the associated minute</em>; each "N" annotation indicates that
apnea was not in progress at the beginning of the associated minute. The
diagram below may help to clarify this:
<pre>
| | | | | | | | |
**************** ******** ********
N A A N N A N A N
</pre>
In this diagram, elapsed time is represented by distance from the left edge.
The '*'s mark apneic periods, the '|'s mark the times of the <tt>.apn</tt>
annotations (0, 60, 120, ... seconds), and the "N"s and "A"s are the "no apnea"
and "apnea" annotations.
</blockquote>
<p>
The <tt>.qrs</tt> files were created using <a
href="/physiotools/wag/sqrs-1.htm"><tt>sqrs125</tt></a>, initially with its
default threshold (250). In these files, all detected beats (including any
abnormal beats that were detected) are marked with "N" annotations, and
QRS-like artifacts are marked with "|" annotations. Based on visual review of
the heart rate time series (using <a
href="/physiotools/wag/hrfft-1.htm"><tt>hrplot</tt></a>), and review of
selected portions of the original ECGs and annotations (using <a
href="/physiotools/wag/wave-1.htm">WAVE</a>), <tt>sqrs125</tt> was run again
using its <tt>-m</tt> option to select lower thresholds on some recordings (in
some cases, more than once) to obtain better detection of low-amplitude QRS
complexes. In no case were the annotations hand-edited. Only small numbers of
annotations were inspected in each recording to determine if the threshold had
been set appropriately. If you wish to experiment further with
<tt>sqrs125</tt> or with your own QRS detector, it may be helpful to know
exactly how the <tt>.qrs</tt> files provided here were made, so here are the
commands that are needed to do so:
<pre>
sqrs125 -r a01
sqrs125 -r a02 -m 125
sqrs125 -r a03
sqrs125 -r a04
sqrs125 -r a05
sqrs125 -r a06 -m 125
sqrs125 -r a07
sqrs125 -r a08
sqrs125 -r a09
sqrs125 -r a10
sqrs125 -r a11
sqrs125 -r a12 -m 125
sqrs125 -r a13
sqrs125 -r a14
sqrs125 -r a15
sqrs125 -r a16
sqrs125 -r a17 -m 100
sqrs125 -r a18
sqrs125 -r a19
sqrs125 -r a20 -m 125
sqrs125 -r b01
sqrs125 -r b02 -m 125
sqrs125 -r b03 -m 125
sqrs125 -r b04 -m 75
sqrs125 -r b05 -m 125
sqrs125 -r b06
sqrs125 -r b07
sqrs125 -r b08
sqrs125 -r b09
sqrs125 -r b10
sqrs125 -r c01 -m 125
sqrs125 -r c02
sqrs125 -r c03
sqrs125 -r c04 -m 125
sqrs125 -r c05 -m 125
sqrs125 -r c06 -m 125
sqrs125 -r c07 -m 100
sqrs125 -r c08 -m 100
sqrs125 -r c09
sqrs125 -r c10
sqrs125 -r x01
sqrs125 -r x02
sqrs125 -r x03
sqrs125 -r x04
sqrs125 -r x05
sqrs125 -r x06
sqrs125 -r x07
sqrs125 -r x08
sqrs125 -r x09
sqrs125 -r x10
sqrs125 -r x11
sqrs125 -r x12
sqrs125 -r x13
sqrs125 -r x14 -m 125
sqrs125 -r x15 -m 125
sqrs125 -r x16
sqrs125 -r x17 -m 50
sqrs125 -r x18
sqrs125 -r x19
sqrs125 -r x20
sqrs125 -r x21
sqrs125 -r x22
sqrs125 -r x23
sqrs125 -r x24
sqrs125 -r x25
sqrs125 -r x26
sqrs125 -r x27
sqrs125 -r x28
sqrs125 -r x29 -m 125
sqrs125 -r x30
sqrs125 -r x31
sqrs125 -r x32
sqrs125 -r x33 -m 125
sqrs125 -r x34 -m 125
sqrs125 -r x35
</pre>
<a name="rdann-notes"><h2>How to use <tt>rdann</tt></h2></a>
<p>
<strong>Install <tt>rdann</tt>:</strong>
<p>
If you haven't already downloaded and installed <tt>rdann</tt>, do so now.
Search for <tt>rdann</tt> (type <tt>rdann</tt> into the text box above
the <em>Search</em> button in the left margin of this page, then click
on <em>Search</em>), and you will find the C-language source as well
as a UNIX-style manual page that describes <tt>rdann</tt>'s options
in more detail than below. All versions of <tt>rdann</tt> are compiled from
the same source, so you can create a version for your operating system,
provided that you have a C compiler. If you do this, you will also need to
download and compile the sources for the
<a href="/physiotools/wfdb.shtml">WFDB library</a> used by <tt>rdann</tt>.
<a href="/physiotools/binaries">Binaries</a> (executable versions of the
program) for several popular operating systems can also be downloaded. Note
that <tt>rdann</tt> is a text-mode application; users of MS-Windows can run
the MS-DOS version of <tt>rdann</tt> in a DOS window.
<p>
<strong>Locate the files you need:</strong>
<p>
Each of the data files has a <em>record name</em> (the first part of the
file name, before the '.') and a suffix (the second part of the file name,
following the '.'). For example, the file <tt>a19.apn</tt> has the record
name <tt>a19</tt> and the suffix <tt>apn</tt>.
<p>
Files with <tt>qrs</tt> or <tt>apn</tt> suffixes are binary annotation files.
For these files, the suffix is the <em>annotator name</em>. Files with the
suffix <tt>hea</tt> are (text) header files containing information about the
format of the related files, and those with the suffix <tt>dat</tt> are binary
signal files (containing digitized samples of the ECG and other signals).
<p>
In order to read an annotation file successfully, you will need to download
both the annotation file itself and the associated header file. For example,
to read <tt>a19.apn</tt>, download <tt>a19.apn</tt> and <tt>a19.hea</tt>.
(The Linux version of <tt>rdann</tt> can act as an HTTP client and can read the
files directly from the PhysioNet server without the need to store them
locally. If you have compiled your own version of the WFDB library with
<a href="/physiotools/wpg/wpg_43.htm">NETFILES</a> support, your version
of <tt>rdann</tt> will also have this capability.)
<p>
<strong>Use <tt>rdann</tt> to convert binary annotations to text:</strong>
<p>
Once you know the <em>record name</em> and the <em>annotator name</em>, you can
use <tt>rdann</tt> to read the file. For example, to read <tt>a19.apn</tt>,
use the command
<pre>
rdann -r a19 -a apn -f 0
</pre>
<p>
This command will produce output on the screen that begins:
<pre>
0:00.000 0 N 0 0 0
1:00.000 6000 A 0 0 0
2:00.000 12000 A 0 0 0
3:00.000 18000 A 0 0 0
4:00.000 24000 A 0 0 0
5:00.000 30000 A 0 0 0
6:00.000 36000 A 0 0 0
7:00.000 42000 N 0 0 0
8:00.000 48000 N 0 0 0
9:00.000 54000 A 0 0 0
10:00.000 60000 A 0 0 0
</pre>
(The '-f 0' option was not required by the version of rdann that was
available when this page was written. If omitted, the first annotation,
at 0:00.000, will not appear in the output.)
<p>
To capture the output of <tt>rdann</tt> in a file, redirect it using a command
such as:
<pre>
rdann -r a19 -a apn -f 0 ><font color=blue><em>textfile</em></font>
</pre>
In this command, replace <font color=blue><tt><em>textfile</em></tt></font>
with any desired file name. This method works under MS-DOS/Windows
as well as under all versions of UNIX.
<p>
Each line of <tt>rdann</tt>'s output corresponds to one annotation. The first
two columns indicate the elapsed time (i.e., the interval) from the beginning
of the record to the sample marked by the annotation. (Column 1 gives this in
hours, minutes, and seconds, and column 2 gives the same information in sample
intervals. In these records, one sample interval equals 10 milliseconds.) The
third column contains a mnemonic code for the annotation type. As noted above,
in the <tt>apn</tt> files, these codes are <tt>A</tt> for "apnea" and
<tt>N</tt> for "no apnea". In the <tt>qrs</tt> files, the codes are <tt>N</tt>
for a QRS complex and <tt>|</tt> for a QRS-like artifact. In these annotation
files, the remaining columns can be ignored.
<p>
The sample output shown above can therefore be interpreted thus: during the
first minute (beginning at 0:00.000, or sample number 0) there is no apnea
(<tt>N</tt>); during each of the next several one-minute periods (beginning at
1:00.000, 2:00.000, 3:00.000, ...), there is apnea (<tt>A</tt>).
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