  This paper presents deformable templates as a tool for segmentation and
localization of biological structures in medical images. Structures are
represented by a prototype template, combined with a parametric warp mapping
used to deform the original shape. The localization procedure is achieved using
a multi-stage, multi-resolution algorithm de-signed to reduce computational
complexity and time. The algorithm initially identifies regions in the image
most likely to contain the desired objects and then examines these regions at
progressively increasing resolutions. The final stage of the algorithm involves
warping the prototype template to match the localized objects. The algorithm is
presented along with the results of four example applications using MRI, x-ray
and ultrasound images.
