Basic usage

The interactive operation of ECGSIM is almost entirely mouse controlled. The main mouse operations are:

• dragging, i.e. moving the mouse while holding the mouse button down, and
• clicking of either the left- or the right mouse button.

The ECGSIM main window consists of four panes:

• the heart pane in the upper left part of the application window,
• the thorax pane in the upper right part of the application window,
• the TMP pane in the lower left part of the application window and
• the leads pane in the lower right part of the application window.

The boundaries between the panes may be shifted by dragging the left mouse button. For each pane there is a menu item on the menu bar. The options in each menu control what is displayed in the corresponding pane.

The most frequently used functions are also available from the tool buttons at the top of the application. To view the function of each button, rest the mouse cursor on the button without pressing any of the mouse buttons. A short text explaining the function of the button will appear.

The heart and the thorax may be rotated by right mouse button dragging. The default, AP view (natural frontal view), is restored by a double click of the left or right mouse button.

By clicking with the left mouse button on the heart surface in the heart pane the nearest node on the heart surface is selected. The TMP pane shows the transmembrane potential at this node.
By means of the handlers ( or , see het TMP main menu) the parameters of the TMP: depolarization, duration, resting potential, source amplitude and slopes at that node and the region around it can be changed. The resulting changes are visible in the heart pane if the corresponding surface function is selected.

The effect of these changes on the body surface potentials may be viewed in the leads pane and the thorax pane. Again, for the thorax pane the corresponding surface function must be selected.

The status bar at the bottom of ECGSIM shows general information from the application.