Real-time 3D vectorcardiography: an application for didactic use

The traditional approach to teach the physiological basis of electrocardiography, based only on textbooks, turns out to be insufficient or confusing for students of biomedical sciences. The addition of laboratory practice to the curriculum enables students to approach theoretical aspects from a hands-on experience, resulting in a more efficient and deeper knowledge of the phenomena of interest. Here, we present the development of a PC-based application meant to facilitate the understanding of cardiac bioelectrical phenomena by visualizing in real time the instantaneous 3D cardiac vector. The system uses 8 standard leads from a 12-channel electrocardiograph. The application interface has pedagogic objectives, and facilitates the observation of cardiac depolarization and repolarization and its temporal relationship with the ECG, making it simpler to interpret.