KURIAS-ECG: a 12-lead electrocardiogram database with standardized diagnosis ontology

The 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is the fundamental test used to evaluate
the electrophysiological state of the heart. Most previous ECG databases use
the diagnosis confirmed by experts. Therefore, ECG diagnosis is not
standardized and its quality is not uniform. In addition, there is a problem
in that the diagnosis statements differ depending on the ECG machine. This
limits the use of the database for further research, such as artificial
intelligence and clinical research. Of note, modern ECG machines provide
computerized rule-based ECG diagnoses comparable to physicians'
interpretations.

Here a high-quality 12-lead ECG database with standard vocabularies (SNOMED-CT
and OMOP-CDM), which was transformed from a computerized ECG diagnosis of ECG
machines was developed. A total of 147 ECG diagnoses were grouped into 10
categories of the Minnesota code classification. To improve the quality of the
database, ECG cases of inappropriate ECG, such as poor quality, reverse arm
ECG, and missing data, were removed. In addition, to minimize skew of the
database, 2000 ECG cases were extracted for each Minnesota classification
category. As a result of database construction, the database consisted of
20000 records for 10 categories of the Minnesota code classification from
13862 patients. The standardized database can be utilized for comprehensive
research on the diagnosis of cardiac disease and the development of robust
artificial intelligence technology.