Open HEA files in your browser
The record PhysioNet's ECG and physiology databases are shared in, a header with its signals and beats beside it. Open one right here, every signal on one timeline, with no WFDB tools. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your recording opens with each channel as a curve at its own rate on one timeline, its annotations along the top.
- Every channel in its unit • EEG, ECG, sleep and CPAP
- Annotations along the top • Find one by its text
- Patient data hidden until you show it
- Export • PNG, CSV, or the file without patient data
About HEA
MIT's WFDB format began with the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and is how PhysioNet still shares most of its databases, from ECGs and blood pressure to EEG and fetal monitoring. The WFDB libraries for C, Python and MATLAB read and write it.
A record is a few files sharing its name: the header (.hea), a line naming the record, its sampling frequency and length, then a line for each signal with its file, format, gain, baseline and unit; the signals' samples in that file (.dat), packed in one of WFDB's formats like 212's 12 bits; and annotations (.atr and others), a time and a code for each beat or event.
Filepeek reads them in your browser when they're dropped together and draws every signal as a curve in its unit on one timeline, with each beat's and rhythm's annotation along the top by its code. The header's comments, which can hold the patient's age, sex and diagnosis, stay hidden until Show patient data. Drag or pinch to move and zoom, put two cursors for the time between beats and its frequency, find an annotation, and save the view as PNG, the samples between the cursors as CSV, or the header without its comments.
WFDB record header
.hea
Format
- MIME type
- application/x-wfdb
- Made by
- MIT, for PhysioNet
Inside the file
- Header
- The record, its rate and each signal's file, gain and unit
- Signals
- Samples packed in formats like 212 and 16
- Annotations
- A time and a code for each beat or event
- Comments
- What's known of the patient
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens WFDB records in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari when the .hea comes with its .dat and annotation files. On their own, browsers show the header as text or download the files.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open HEA
- WindowsPython's wfdb or the WFDB Toolbox for MATLAB
- MacPython's wfdb or the WFDB Toolbox for MATLAB
- iPhone and iPadNo app opens it
- AndroidNo app opens it
Questions
How do I open a WFDB record without the WFDB tools?
Drop the record's .hea, .dat and .atr together on this page, or choose them together with Peek an HEA. Every signal opens on one timeline in your browser, its beats along the top.
Which WFDB formats open?
Formats 8, 16, 24, 32, 61, 80, 160, 212, 310 and 311, which cover PhysioNet's databases, each signal in a file of its own or several in one. Records packed with FLAC (formats 508, 516 and 524) and multi-segment records don't open.
What do the letters along the top mean?
They're MIT's annotation codes: N a normal beat, V a premature ventricular contraction, A an atrial premature beat, and a rhythm change by its rhythm, like (AFIB. Normal beats are green and the others coral.
Can I save the record without the patient's details?
Yes. Choose Export, then Save without patient data, for a header without its comments and its date, which is where WFDB keeps them. The .dat files hold only samples.