Performance of single and multi-atlas based automated landmarking methods compared to expert annotations in volumetric microCT datasets of mouse mandibles

BACKGROUND: Here we present an application of advanced registration and atlas building framework DRAMMS to the automated annotation of mouse mandibles through a series of tests using single and multi-atlas segmentation paradigms and compare the outcomes to the current gold standard, manual annotation. RESULTS: Our results showed multi-atlas annotation procedure yields landmark precisions within the human observer error range. The mean shape estimates from gold standard and multi-atlas annotation procedure were statistically indistinguishable for both Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (mean form matrix) and Generalized Procrustes Analysis (Goodall F-test). Further research needs to be done to validate the consistency of variance-covariance matrix estimates from both methods with larger sample sizes. CONCLUSION: Multi-atlas annotation procedure shows promise as a framework to facilitate truly high-throughput phenomic analyses by channeling investigators efforts to annotate only a small portion of their datasets. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12983-015-0127-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.