How to search for records in PhysioBank

If you haven't already done so, see our tutorial, Finding records in PhysioBank. Here's a brief overview of what you can do on this page:

  1. In the top section, choose a Subject, a Relationship, and a Value, then click .
    • If you choose a Subject marked as "(name)", type the annotation type, annotator name, or signal name of interest in the Name/# box. See PhysioBank Annotations and PhysioBank Signals for lists of annotation types and signal names. For example, choose Subject: Annotation type and Name/#: V to find records containing V (premature ventricular contraction) annotations.
    • If you choose a Subject class marked with "(#)", you may type a number in the Name/# box to restrict the search to records that have at least that number of members of the class. For example, choose Subject: ECG and Name/#: 3 to find records that include 3 or more ECG signals.
    • Choose a Relationship for comparing each Subject element of the chosen type with the Value. The Relationships '~', '!~', and '?' mean similar, different, and defined respectively. If the Subject element contains the (string) Value, or is within 10% of the (numeric) Value, it is similar. If the Subject element exists, it is defined, irrespective of the Value, and it is different if it is not similar. For example, choose Subject: Age, Relationship: ~, and Value: 40 to find records from subjects aged 40 ± 10% (i.e., 36-44 inclusive).
    • As a Value, you may enter a duration (e.g., 10:30:0), a sampling frequency (e.g., 250Hz), the gain of a signal (e.g., 200adu/mV), a number (e.g., 40), or a character string. If Value is omitted, the search is performed as if the Relationship were '?'.
    • Hover over the controls for tooltips.
  2. Each time you click on Get List, a new List of results appears at the top of the Results section. Click on the List's name to view its contents.
  3. Use the checkboxes next to the List names to select Lists, then click:
    to make a new List of records belonging to all of the selected Lists.
    to make a new List of records belonging to any of the selected Lists.
    to make a new List of records not belonging to the selected List.
    (To get the complement of more than one List, combine them first using or .)
    to make a new List by choosing a subset of the selected List (see below).
    to discard the selected Lists.

When you click , the PhysioBank ATM opens the selected List (the source List). Use any of the ATM's tools to examine any of the records in the source List. Accept or reject individual records using the ATM's and buttons. When you return to this page, new Lists of records you have accepted or rejected appear below the source List. The source List is unaltered, but if you open it again in the ATM, your previous classifications will be visible and you may change them or classify additional records.

Lists created using , , or are not updated if the Lists from which they were created have changed (for example, if they are based on "accepted from" or "rejected from" Lists created using ).

Please note that PhysioBank Record Search allows you to search for records using criteria that can be evaluated with reference to information contained in the PhysioBank Index only. The Index does not contain information about transient events within records or their locations; if it's not in the Index, this search cannot find it!

You can restore your session if you return to this page within a few days, but your saved searches do not update themselves when the PhysioBank Index is updated; rerun them to get updated results if necessary. The Lists in the Results section are plain text files that can be downloaded if you need to keep them for reference.

The interactive search interface used here was inspired by the one pioneered by PaperChase, originally developed at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital for searching the MEDLINE database of biomedical literature.