Non-uniform 3D distance transform for anisotropic signal correction in confocal image volumes of skeletal muscle cell nuclei

Detailed description of the three dimensional organization of nuclei in confocal microscope image volumes of skeletal muscle fibers needs accurate identification of the nuclei centroids. We propose a model based method, applied as a weighted distance transform that take into consideration the diffuse, attenuated, anisotropic, and non-symmetric behavior of the nuclei signals, to provide a transformed image volume where the individual nuclei are better separated, and where the correct nuclei centroids are easily attained.