1. A method for detecting tubing in a radiographic image of a patient, comprising: obtaining radiographic image data for a patient; identifying a region of interest in the radiographic image; forming a gradient magnitude image of the region of interest; analyzing the gradient magnitude image to identify one or more linear features by defining a band lying substantially within the region of interest and having a center point and repeating a sequence comprising two or more iterations of: (i) assigning a rotation angle for the rotatable band about the center point; and (ii) computing the ensemble average of gradient magnitude values along each of a plurality of lines extending within the rotatable band at the defined rotation angle and computing relative magnitudes for the lines; and evaluating the one or more identified linear features according to the results of the ensemble average computing.