ITK-SNAP

ITK-SNAP is an open-source software application for medical image segmentation_image_processing. It's primary use is for delineating anatomical structures and regions in MRI, CT and other three-dimensional medical images. ITK-SNAP can be used in two modes. The first mode is manual delineation, where the user traces the boundaries of structures in three orthogonal slice planes through the medical image. The second mode is automatic segmentation, which uses the level set method. The user places one or more seeds in the image, and seeds grow constrained by intensity edges in the image. In neuroimaging, ITK-SNAP is used to segment the hippocampus (in manual mode), ventricles (in automatic mode), caudate (automatic mode with manual touchup), and many other structures of interest.

ITK-SNAP was developed by image analysis researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Development began at UNC-CH as a series of graduate student projects in the Computer Science Department. Subsequent development was funded by the National Library of Medicine and performed at the PICSL group [www.picsl.upenn.edu|(website)] at the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania.