A technique is provided for segmenting a structure of interest from a
volume dataset. The technique identifies regions of the structure using
templates having characteristics of the structure of interest. The
identified regions may then undergo a constrained growth process using
dynamic constraints that may vary based on local statistics associated
with the identified structure regions. Edges within the volume may be
determined using gradient data determined by evaluating the strongest
gradient between each pixel and all adjacent pixels. The edge data may be
used to prevent the constrained growing process from exceeding the
boundaries of the structure of interest.