mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

MedSegDiff-V2: Diffusion based Medical Image Segmentation with Transformer

arXiv 2301.11798 ↗First posted 19 Jan 2023eess.IV cs.CVcited by 124

On the map: Diffusion models → Medical imaging and segmentation

Abstract (arXiv)

The Diffusion Probabilistic Model (DPM) has recently gained popularity in the field of computer vision, thanks to its image generation applications, such as Imagen, Latent Diffusion Models, and Stable Diffusion, which have demonstrated impressive capabilities and sparked much discussion within the community. Recent investigations have further unveiled the utility of DPM in the domain of medical image analysis, as underscored by the commendable performance exhibited by the medical image segmentation model across various tasks. Although these models were originally underpinned by a UNet architecture, there exists a potential avenue for enhancing their performance through the integration of vision transformer mechanisms. However, we discovered that simply combining these two models resulted in subpar performance. To effectively integrate these two cutting-edge techniques for the Medical image segmentation, we propose a novel Transformer-based Diffusion framework, called MedSegDiff-V2. We verify its effectiveness on 20 medical image segmentation tasks with different image modalities. Through comprehensive evaluation, our approach demonstrates superiority over prior state-of-the-art (SOTA) methodologies. Code is released at https://github.com/KidsWithTokens/MedSegDiff

Key facts. Cited by 124 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Medical imaging and segmentation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 29 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Jan 2023.

Builds on

29 of 46 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2022Improved HER2 Tumor Segmentation with Subtype Balancing using Deep Generative Networks11 Nov
  2. 2022MedSegDiff: Medical Image Segmentation with Diffusion Probabilistic Model1 Nov
  3. 2022Accelerating Diffusion Models via Pre-segmentation Diffusion Sampling for Medical Image Segmentation27 Oct
  4. 2021Diffusion Models for Implicit Image Segmentation Ensembles6 Dec

Other references · 25

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
  3. 2021Emerging Properties in Self-Supervised Vision Transformerscited by 6,893
  4. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,539
  5. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,322
  6. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,736
  7. 2018CBAM: Convolutional Block Attention Modulecited by 2,463
  8. 2020Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functionscited by 2,214
  9. 2021TransUNet: Transformers Make Strong Encoders for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 1,552
  10. 2021UNETR: Transformers for 3D Medical Image Segmentationcited by 954
  11. 2022Swin UNETR: Swin Transformers for Semantic Segmentation of Brain Tumors in MRI Imagescited by 823
  12. 2021The RSNA-ASNR-MICCAI BraTS 2021 Benchmark on Brain Tumor Segmentation and Radiogenomic Classificationcited by 507
13 more
  1. 2021Intriguing Properties of Vision Transformerscited by 446
  2. 2022AMOS: A Large-Scale Abdominal Multi-Organ Benchmark for Versatile Medical Image Segmentationcited by 347
  3. 2019Med3D: Transfer Learning for 3D Medical Image Analysiscited by 282
  4. 2018A Probabilistic U-Net for Segmentation of Ambiguous Imagescited by 281
  5. 2021TransBTS: Multimodal Brain Tumor Segmentation Using Transformercited by 265
  6. 2020Multi-organ Segmentation over Partially Labeled Datasets with Multi-scale Feature Abstractioncited by 70
  7. 2022Diffusion Adversarial Representation Learning for Self-supervised Vessel Segmentationcited by 55
  8. 2019Boundary and Entropy-driven Adversarial Learning for Fundus Image Segmentationcited by 46
  9. 2019Automated Skin Lesion Classification Using Ensemble of Deep Neural Networks in ISIC 2018: Skin Lesion Analysis Towards Melanoma Detection Challengecited by 16
  10. 2020Leveraging Undiagnosed Data for Glaucoma Classification with Teacher-Student Learningcited by 12
  11. 2022Learning self-calibrated optic disc and cup segmentation from multi-rater annotationscited by 8
  12. 2022SeATrans: Learning Segmentation-Assisted diagnosis model via Transformercited by 8
  13. 2019Universal, transferable and targeted adversarial attackscited by 7

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 20; 2024: 33; 2025: 45; 2026: 26.

124 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2024Sora: A Review on Background, Technology, Limitations, and Opportunities of Large Vision Modelscited by 467
  2. 2024Medical SAM 2: Segment medical images as video via Segment Anything Model 2cited by 151
  3. 2024A Comprehensive Survey of Foundation Models in Medicinecited by 56
  4. 2023Stochastic Segmentation with Conditional Categorical Diffusion Modelscited by 38
  5. 2024Touchstone Benchmark: Are We on the Right Way for Evaluating AI Algorithms for Medical Segmentation?cited by 31
  6. 2023SegRefiner: Towards Model-Agnostic Segmentation Refinement with Discrete Diffusion Processcited by 28
  7. 2023Diffusion Model for Camouflaged Object Detectioncited by 27
  8. 2023How to Protect Copyright Data in Optimization of Large Language Models?cited by 26
  9. 2024FlowSDF: Flow Matching for Medical Image Segmentation Using Distance Transformscited by 25
  10. 2023DiffBoost: Enhancing Medical Image Segmentation via Text-Guided Diffusion Modelcited by 23
  11. 2024Stable Diffusion Segmentation for Biomedical Images with Single-step Reverse Processcited by 16
  12. 2023Denoising Diffusion Semantic Segmentation with Mask Prior Modelingcited by 15
38 more
  1. 2023LLCaps: Learning to Illuminate Low-Light Capsule Endoscopy with Curved Wavelet Attention and Reverse Diffusioncited by 15
  2. 2024HQ-DiT: Efficient Diffusion Transformer with FP4 Hybrid Quantizationcited by 15
  3. 2024FreeTumor: Advance Tumor Segmentation via Large-Scale Tumor Synthesiscited by 14
  4. 2024HiDiff: Hybrid Diffusion Framework for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 13
  5. 2024DiTAS: Quantizing Diffusion Transformers via Enhanced Activation Smoothingcited by 13
  6. 2023DermoSegDiff: A Boundary-aware Segmentation Diffusion Model for Skin Lesion Delineationcited by 12
  7. 2023A Survey of Emerging Applications of Diffusion Probabilistic Models in MRIcited by 9
  8. 2025Conditional Diffusion Models are Medical Image Classifiers that Provide Explainability and Uncertainty for Freecited by 9
  9. 2025Recent Advances in Medical Imaging Segmentation: A Surveycited by 8
  10. 2025MedEBench: Diagnosing Reliability in Text-Guided Medical Image Editingcited by 8
  11. 2025Symmetrical Flow Matching: Unified Image Generation, Segmentation, and Classification with Score-Based Generative Modelscited by 8
  12. 2024Generative Medical Segmentationcited by 6
  13. 2024Diffuse-UDA: Addressing Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in Medical Image Segmentation with Appearance and Structure Aligned Diffusion Modelscited by 6
  14. 2024A Review of Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification in Deep Probabilistic Image Segmentationcited by 6
  15. 2025Applications of Large Models in Medicinecited by 6
  16. 2023A Recycling Training Strategy for Medical Image Segmentation with Diffusion Denoising Modelscited by 5
  17. 2024SegICL: A Multimodal In-context Learning Framework for Enhanced Segmentation in Medical Imagingcited by 5
  18. 2024Latent Diffusion for Medical Image Segmentation: End to end learning for fast sampling and accuracycited by 5
  19. 2023DiffuseGAE: Controllable and High-fidelity Image Manipulation from Disentangled Representationcited by 4
  20. 2023FEDD -- Fair, Efficient, and Diverse Diffusion-based Lesion Segmentation and Malignancy Classificationcited by 4
  21. 2024Lane Graph Extraction from Aerial Imagery via Lane Segmentation Refinement with Diffusion Modelscited by 4
  22. 2024SkinMamba: A Precision Skin Lesion Segmentation Architecture with Cross-Scale Global State Modeling and Frequency Boundary Guidancecited by 4
  23. 2024A Physics-Inspired Deep Learning Framework with Polar Coordinate Attention for Ptychographic Imagingcited by 4
  24. 2025DiffAtlas: GenAI-fying Atlas Segmentation via Image-Mask Diffusioncited by 4
  25. 2025UKBOB: One Billion MRI Labeled Masks for Generalizable 3D Medical Image Segmentationcited by 4
  26. 2025DMCIE: Diffusion Model with Concatenation of Inputs and Errors to Improve the Accuracy of the Segmentation of Brain Tumors in MRI Imagescited by 4
  27. 2023Pre-Training with Diffusion models for Dental Radiography segmentationcited by 3
  28. 2023GenSelfDiff-HIS: Generative Self-Supervision Using Diffusion for Histopathological Image Segmentationcited by 3
  29. 2024FDiff-Fusion:Denoising diffusion fusion network based on fuzzy learning for 3D medical image segmentationcited by 3
  30. 2024Denoising Diffusion Models for Anomaly Localization in Medical Imagescited by 3
  31. 2025Segment Any-Quality Images with Generative Latent Space Enhancementcited by 3
  32. 2025PathSegDiff: Pathology Segmentation using Diffusion model representationscited by 3
  33. 2025LDPoly: Latent Diffusion for Polygonal Road Outline Extraction in Large-Scale Topographic Mappingcited by 3
  34. 2025ReCoSeg++:Extended Residual-Guided Cross-Modal Diffusion for Brain Tumor Segmentationcited by 3
  35. 2025Diffusion-Based Data Augmentation for Medical Image Segmentationcited by 3
  36. 2025Responsible Diffusion: A Comprehensive Survey on Safety, Ethics, and Trust in Diffusion Modelscited by 3
  37. 2023Investigating and Improving Latent Density Segmentation Models for Aleatoric Uncertainty Quantification in Medical Imagingcited by 2
  38. 2023Surf-CDM: Score-Based Surface Cold-Diffusion Model For Medical Image Segmentationcited by 2

50 most cited of 124 All 124 (JSON)

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Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Computationally Efficient Diffusion Models in Medical Imaging: A Comprehensive Review
  2. 2022Diffusion Models for Medical Image Analysis: A Comprehensive Survey
  3. 2023Robust semi-supervised segmentation with timestep ensembling diffusion models
  4. 2024Enhancing Label-efficient Medical Image Segmentation with Text-guided Diffusion Models
  5. 2024Fast-DDPM: Fast Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Medical Image-to-Image Generation
  6. 2025VGDM: Vision-Guided Diffusion Model for Brain Tumor Detection and Segmentation
  7. 2022Medical Diffusion: Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for 3D Medical Image Generation
  8. 2023Diff-UNet: A Diffusion Embedded Network for Volumetric Segmentation