1. A method for detection, identification and delineation of a structure in a volume from original data, the method comprising: (a) performing background characterization in the original data to determine at least one background class in the original data; (b) identifying an exemplar in the original data; (c) identifying structures throughout the volume in accordance with the at least one background class determined in step (a) and the exemplar identified in step (b); and (d) extracting quantitative information from the structures identified in step (c).