Method for identifying a specific part of a spine, wherein said part of the spine relates to a vertebra or an intervertebral disk, in a computed tomography image of a human or animal body, comprising the following steps: a) determining one or more parts of the spine in the image, b) determining one or more discriminative parameters for each of said parts of the spine in the image, wherein the discriminative parameters relate to at least one anatomical property of each of said parts of the spine, c) classifying the discriminative parameters of said parts of the spine in the image and d) automatically identifying by means of an image processing unit said specific part of the spine based on the classification of the discriminative parameters of said parts of the spine in the image wherein the discriminative parameters relate to ribs at said parts of the spine in the image characterised in that said parts of the spine in the image are determined on the basis of a contour image (20, 21) which is derived from the image by means of the following steps: - detecting the spinal canal of the spine in the image, - pruning away a frontal part of a rib cage from the image, - calculating a frontal maximum image projection of the image, - deriving a binary image from the frontal maximum image projection of the image by comparing pixel values of the frontal maximum image projection with at least one bone threshold value and - deriving the contour image (20, 21) from the binary image and further wherein said parts of the spine in the image are determined on the basis of the contour image (20, 21) by means of the following steps: - smoothing the contour image (20, 21), - calculating local minima (μ) and local maxima (τ) in the contour image (20, 21), - determining vertebra centers (α) on the basis of said local minima (μ) and/or local maxima (τ), - establishing connections (δ) between said vertebra centers (α) with corresponding local maxima (τ) and - determining said discriminative parameters for each of said parts of the spine in the image on the basis of said connections (δ), comprising the lengths and angles of said connections (δ). a) determining one or more parts of the spine in the image, b) determining one or more discriminative parameters for each of said parts of the spine in the image, wherein the discriminative parameters relate to at least one anatomical property of each of said parts of the spine, c) classifying the discriminative parameters of said parts of the spine in the image and d) automatically identifying by means of an image processing unit said specific part of the spine based on the classification of the discriminative parameters of said parts of the spine in the image wherein the discriminative parameters relate to ribs at said parts of the spine in the image characterised in that said parts of the spine in the image are determined on the basis of a contour image (20, 21) which is derived from the image by means of the following steps: - detecting the spinal canal of the spine in the image, - pruning away a frontal part of a rib cage from the image, - calculating a frontal maximum image projection of the image, - deriving a binary image from the frontal maximum image projection of the image by comparing pixel values of the frontal maximum image projection with at least one bone threshold value and - deriving the contour image (20, 21) from the binary image and further wherein said parts of the spine in the image are determined on the basis of the contour image (20, 21) by means of the following steps: - smoothing the contour image (20, 21), - calculating local minima (μ) and local maxima (τ) in the contour image (20, 21), - determining vertebra centers (α) on the basis of said local minima (μ) and/or local maxima (τ), - establishing connections (δ) between said vertebra centers (α) with corresponding local maxima (τ) and - determining said discriminative parameters for each of said parts of the spine in the image on the basis of said connections (δ), comprising the lengths and angles of said connections (δ). - detecting the spinal canal of the spine in the image, - pruning away a frontal part of a rib cage from the image, - calculating a frontal maximum image projection of the image, - deriving a binary image from the frontal maximum image projection of the image by comparing pixel values of the frontal maximum image projection with at least one bone threshold value and - deriving the contour image (20, 21) from the binary image and further wherein said parts of the spine in the image are determined on the basis of the contour image (20, 21) by means of the following steps: - smoothing the contour image (20, 21), - calculating local minima (μ) and local maxima (τ) in the contour image (20, 21), - determining vertebra centers (α) on the basis of said local minima (μ) and/or local maxima (τ), - establishing connections (δ) between said vertebra centers (α) with corresponding local maxima (τ) and - determining said discriminative parameters for each of said parts of the spine in the image on the basis of said connections (δ), comprising the lengths and angles of said connections (δ). - smoothing the contour image (20, 21), - calculating local minima (μ) and local maxima (τ) in the contour image (20, 21), - determining vertebra centers (α) on the basis of said local minima (μ) and/or local maxima (τ), - establishing connections (δ) between said vertebra centers (α) with corresponding local maxima (τ) and - determining said discriminative parameters for each of said parts of the spine in the image on the basis of said connections (δ), comprising the lengths and angles of said connections (δ).