US Patent 7876934 Method of database-guided segmentation of anatomical structures having complex appearances

A method for segmenting an anatomical structure of interest within an image is disclosed. The anatomical structure of interest is compared to a database of images of like anatomical structures. Those database images of like anatomical structures that are similar to the anatomical structure of interest are identified. The identified database images are used to detect the anatomical structure of interest in the image. The identified database images are also used to determine the shape of the anatomical structure of interest. The anatomical structure of interest is segmented from the image.