Proposal for an Automated Synthesis of Morphometrics and Image Analysis for Solid Medical Images

We review recent developments in morphornetrics and image analysis with an eye toward their synthesis. Over the last decade, it has become possible to apply all the usual methods of biometric statistics to configurations of landmark points. Hitherto this information has been used for the description of form without further reference to pictorial content, which is typically analyzed separately for densities, lucencies, abnormal textures, and other visual anomalies. We propose a synthesis of these two traditions of analysis, one which will support, for instance, a distinction between a diagnosis of "wrong texture" associated with an appropriate structure. Statistical comparisons of a single patient's surface form with the mean and range of a large normative data base will make possible a systematic approach to the semiautomatic detection of disease states.