1. A method for autonomously detecting boundaries in a subject echocardiographic image, the method comprising: (a) obtaining, for a plurality of pathologically similar reference hearts, a reference echocardiographic image of each reference heart at end-systole and at end-diastole; (b) identifying the epicardial and endocardial borders in each reference echocardiographic image; (c) locating a plurality of predetermined features in each reference echocardiographic images; (d) modeling an epicardial/endocardial border pair from the identified epicardial and endocardial borders; (e) locating the predetermined features in the subject echocardiographic image from the location of the predetermined features in the reference echocardiographic images; and (f) mapping the modeled epicardial/endocardial border pair onto the subject echocardiographic image relative to the location of the predetermined features in the subject echocardiographic image.