Development of a pediatric ECG rhythm database for the assessment of the rhythm analysis algorithms of automated external defibrillators

In 2003 the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) approved the use of Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) in children under 8 years of age. Two independent studies, conducted with commercial AEDs on proprietary pediatric ECG databases, provided the necessary scientific evidence. We have developed a database of pediatric rhythms for the evaluation of the rhythm analysis algorithms of AEDs. We collected archived ECG studies from patients under 14 years of age in two Spanish hospitals. The extracted rhythm samples contain a single rhythm, no artefact and have a minimum duration of 5 seconds. Three independent cardiologists classified the rhythm samples according to the American Heart´s Association (AHA) guidelines; a consensus decision was reached when divergences arose. We compiled a total of 674 rhythm samples from 363 patients. The cardiologists classified 112 rhythm samples from 32 patients as shockable and 552 rhythm samples from 337 patients as nonshockable; 10 rhythm samples were classified as intermediate. The database contains enough nonshockable rhythm samples to meet the AHA requirements for the assessment of the specificity of AED rhythm analysis algorithms. We are currently working to complete the database with enough shockable rhythm samples to assess the sensitivity of AED rhythm analysis algorithms.