Shape and semantics for 3D anatomical structure retrieval

In this paper, we propose a framework for the description of anatomical structures based on topological and geometrical features and on semantic annotation. The main goal is to enhance the description of an anatomical structure -understood as a 3D model- with other non-geometrical pieces of information relevant to the particular problem-context. Hybrid methods for similarity searches are then introduced and shown to be able to support effective case-based reasoning procedures. The approach is illustrated with examples from several medical application fields in order to discuss its potential impact.