# Deep Learning for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Joint Detection and Damage Scoring in X-rays

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.13915 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13915/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 31 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Apr 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [3D U-Net: Learning Dense Volumetric Segmentation from Sparse Annotation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.06650/) (2016)
- [When Does Label Smoothing Help?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02629/) (2019)
- [Cyclical Learning Rates for Training Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01186/) (2015)
- [An Intriguing Failing of Convolutional Neural Networks and the CoordConv Solution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03247/) (2018)
- [Attention Gated Networks: Learning to Leverage Salient Regions in Medical Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.08114/) (2018)
- [Holistic Multi-View Building Analysis in the Wild with Projection Pooling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10041/) (2020)
- [DeepRA: Predicting Joint Damage From Radiographs Using CNN with Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.06982/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [RAM-W600: A Multi-Task Wrist Dataset and Benchmark for Rheumatoid Arthritis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05193/) (2025)
- [A Sub-pixel Accurate Quantification of Joint Space Narrowing Progression in Rheumatoid Arthritis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09315/) (2022)
- [Rheumatoid Arthritis: Automated Scoring of Radiographic Joint Damage](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08812/) (2021)
- [Interpretable Rheumatoid Arthritis Scoring via Anatomy-aware Multiple Instance Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06218/) (2025)
- [Chronological Contrastive Learning: Few-Shot Progression Assessment in Irreversible Diseases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.21935/) (2026)
- [RAM-H1200: A Unified Evaluation and Dataset on Hand Radiographs for Rheumatoid Arthritis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.05616/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in computer vision promise to automate medical image analysis. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that would profit from computer-based diagnosis, as there are no direct markers known, and doctors have to rely on manual inspection of X-ray images. In this work, we present a multi-task deep learning model that simultaneously learns to localize joints on X-ray images and diagnose two kinds of joint damage: narrowing and erosion. Additionally, we propose a modification of label smoothing, which combines classification and regression cues into a single loss and achieves 5% relative error reduction compared to standard loss functions. Our final model obtained 4th place in joint space narrowing and 5th place in joint erosion in the global RA2 DREAM challenge.