1. A method for using a medical imaging system to recognize an internal structure from a three-dimensional image comprising a plurality of image sub-volumes, the method comprising: selecting an image sub-volume of the plurality of image sub-volumes using a non-linear search pattern; analyzing the selected image sub-volume for the presence of the internal structure; repeating the steps of selecting an image sub-volume using the non-linear search pattern and analyzing the selected sub-volume for the presence of the internal structure until the internal structure is found in an image sub-volume; and identifying bounds of the internal structure based on the location of the image sub-volume within which the internal structure is found.