Tree-like Shapes Distance Using the Elastic Shape Analysis Framework

The analysis and comparison of tree-like shapes is of great importance since many structures in nature can be described by them. In the field of biomedical imaging, trees have been used to describe structures such as neurons, blood vessels and lung airways. Since it is known that their morphology provides information on their functioning and allows the characterization of pathological states, it is of paramount importance to develop methods to analyze their shape and to quantify differences in structures. At present, there are a number of methods for the comparison of trees. Some only take into account the topology of the trees (such as [1], [2]), while others consider both topological and geometrical information (such as [3], [4]).