1. A method for estimating the location of an anatomical structure in an x-ray image of a patient, comprising: obtaining the x-ray data in digital format; estimating the location of at least a first benchmark feature within the x-ray image according to the obtained digital x-ray data; defining a region of interest within the image according to the estimated location of at least the first benchmark feature; searching the region of interest for the anatomical structure using a template; and highlighting the location of the anatomical structure on a display according to the template searching results.