mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

A Survey of Emerging Applications of Diffusion Probabilistic Models in MRI

arXiv 2311.11383 ↗First posted 19 Nov 2023cs.CVcited by 9

On the map: Diffusion models → Medical imaging and segmentation

Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion probabilistic models (DPMs) which employ explicit likelihood characterization and a gradual sampling process to synthesize data, have gained increasing research interest. Despite their huge computational burdens due to the large number of steps involved during sampling, DPMs are widely appreciated in various medical imaging tasks for their high-quality and diversity of generation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important medical imaging modality with excellent soft tissue contrast and superb spatial resolution, which possesses unique opportunities for DPMs. Although there is a recent surge of studies exploring DPMs in MRI, a survey paper of DPMs specifically designed for MRI applications is still lacking. This review article aims to help researchers in the MRI community to grasp the advances of DPMs in different applications. We first introduce the theory of two dominant kinds of DPMs, categorized according to whether the diffusion time step is discrete or continuous, and then provide a comprehensive review of emerging DPMs in MRI, including reconstruction, image generation, image translation, segmentation, anomaly detection, and further research topics. Finally, we discuss the general limitations as well as limitations specific to the MRI tasks of DPMs and point out potential areas that are worth further exploration.

Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Medical imaging and segmentation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 129 of its 184 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2023.

Builds on

129 of 184 references.

Closest ancestors · 50

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Investigating Data Memorization in 3D Latent Diffusion Models for Medical Image Synthesis3 Jul
  2. 2023Self-Supervised MRI Reconstruction with Unrolled Diffusion Models29 Jun
  3. 2023Annotator Consensus Prediction for Medical Image Segmentation with Diffusion Models15 Jun
  4. 2023Conditional Diffusion Models for Weakly Supervised Medical Image Segmentation6 Jun
  5. 2023Brain tumor segmentation using synthetic MR images -- A comparison of GANs and diffusion models5 Jun
  6. 2023Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in Medical Images Using Masked Diffusion Model31 May
  7. 2023Mask, Stitch, and Re-Sample: Enhancing Robustness and Generalizability in Anomaly Detection through Automatic Diffusion Models31 May
  8. 2023Unsupervised Discovery of 3D Hierarchical Structure with Generative Diffusion Features28 Apr
  9. 2023Cycle-guided Denoising Diffusion Probability Model for 3D Cross-modality MRI Synthesis28 Apr
  10. 2023SPIRiT-Diffusion: Self-Consistency Driven Diffusion Model for Accelerated MRI11 Apr
  11. 2023Ambiguous Medical Image Segmentation using Diffusion Models10 Apr
  12. 2023BerDiff: Conditional Bernoulli Diffusion Model for Medical Image Segmentation10 Apr
38 more
  1. 2023DDMM-Synth: A Denoising Diffusion Model for Cross-modal Medical Image Synthesis with Sparse-view Measurement Embedding28 Mar
  2. 2023Memory-Efficient 3D Denoising Diffusion Models for Medical Image Processing27 Mar
  3. 2023CoLa-Diff: Conditional Latent Diffusion Model for Multi-Modal MRI Synthesis24 Mar
  4. 2023DisC-Diff: Disentangled Conditional Diffusion Model for Multi-Contrast MRI Super-Resolution24 Mar
  5. 2023Medical diffusion on a budget: Textual Inversion for medical image generation23 Mar
  6. 2023Diff-UNet: A Diffusion Embedded Network for Volumetric Segmentation18 Mar
  7. 2023Improving 3D Imaging with Pre-Trained Perpendicular 2D Diffusion Models15 Mar
  8. 2023Diffusion Models for Contrast Harmonization of Magnetic Resonance Images14 Mar
  9. 2023Importance of Aligning Training Strategy with Evaluation for Diffusion Models in 3D Multiclass Segmentation10 Mar
  10. 2023Patched Diffusion Models for Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in Brain MRI7 Mar
  11. 2023Bi-parametric prostate MR image synthesis using pathology and sequence-conditioned stable diffusion3 Mar
  12. 2023DDM2: Self-Supervised Diffusion MRI Denoising with Generative Diffusion Models6 Feb
  13. 2023MedSegDiff-V2: Diffusion based Medical Image Segmentation with Transformer19 Jan
  14. 2023The role of noise in denoising models for anomaly detection in medical images19 Jan
  15. 2023Annealed Score-Based Diffusion Model for MR Motion Artifact Reduction8 Jan
  16. 2022SADM: Sequence-Aware Diffusion Model for Longitudinal Medical Image Generation16 Dec
  17. 2022SPIRiT-Diffusion: SPIRiT-driven Score-Based Generative Modeling for Vessel Wall imaging14 Dec
  18. 2022Solving 3D Inverse Problems using Pre-trained 2D Diffusion Models19 Nov
  19. 2022Seeing Beyond the Brain: Conditional Diffusion Model with Sparse Masked Modeling for Vision Decoding13 Nov
  20. 2022Medical Diffusion: Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for 3D Medical Image Generation7 Nov
  21. 2022MedSegDiff: Medical Image Segmentation with Diffusion Probabilistic Model1 Nov
  22. 2022Accelerating Diffusion Models via Pre-segmentation Diffusion Sampling for Medical Image Segmentation27 Oct
  23. 2022Multitask Brain Tumor Inpainting with Diffusion Models: A Methodological Report21 Oct
  24. 2022Brain Imaging Generation with Latent Diffusion Models15 Sep
  25. 2022Self-Score: Self-Supervised Learning on Score-Based Models for MRI Reconstruction2 Sep
  26. 2022Unsupervised Medical Image Translation with Adversarial Diffusion Models17 Jul
  27. 2022Adaptive Diffusion Priors for Accelerated MRI Reconstruction12 Jul
  28. 2022A Novel Unified Conditional Score-based Generative Framework for Multi-modal Medical Image Completion7 Jul
  29. 2022Fast Unsupervised Brain Anomaly Detection and Segmentation with Diffusion Models7 Jun
  30. 2022Diffusion Models for Medical Anomaly Detection8 Mar
  31. 2022Towards performant and reliable undersampled MR reconstruction via diffusion model sampling8 Mar
  32. 2022Measurement-conditioned Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Model for Under-sampled Medical Image Reconstruction5 Mar
  33. 2022Bayesian MRI Reconstruction with Joint Uncertainty Estimation using Diffusion Models3 Feb
  34. 2021DiffuseMorph: Unsupervised Deformable Image Registration Using Diffusion Model9 Dec
  35. 2021Diffusion Models for Implicit Image Segmentation Ensembles6 Dec
  36. 2021Label-Efficient Semantic Segmentation with Diffusion Models6 Dec
  37. 2021Solving Inverse Problems in Medical Imaging with Score-Based Generative Models15 Nov
  38. 2021Score-based diffusion models for accelerated MRI8 Oct

Other references · 79

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  2. 2015U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentationcited by 19,713
  3. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
  4. 2021Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windowscited by 12,139
  5. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
  6. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 9,122
  7. 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,255
  8. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
  9. 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,847
  10. 2022Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,627
  11. 2019Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distributioncited by 4,101
  12. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,761
38 more
  1. 2021GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 3,614
  2. 2020Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 3,253
  3. 2015Variational Inference with Normalizing Flowscited by 2,170
  4. 2021SDEdit: Guided Image Synthesis and Editing with Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 1,937
  5. 2018Attention U-Net: Learning Where to Look for the Pancreascited by 1,435
  6. 2022Diffusion Posterior Sampling for General Noisy Inverse Problemscited by 1,416
  7. 2022Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applicationscited by 1,114
  8. 2021UNETR: Transformers for 3D Medical Image Segmentationcited by 959
  9. 2022DPM-Solver++: Fast Solver for Guided Sampling of Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 938
  10. 2022Swin UNETR: Swin Transformers for Semantic Segmentation of Brain Tumors in MRI Imagescited by 830
  11. 2023Extracting Training Data from Diffusion Modelscited by 732
  12. 2021ILVR: Conditioning Method for Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 635
  13. 2021The Medical Segmentation Decathloncited by 628
  14. 2021The RSNA-ASNR-MICCAI BraTS 2021 Benchmark on Brain Tumor Segmentation and Radiogenomic Classificationcited by 518
  15. 2018Identifying the Best Machine Learning Algorithms for Brain Tumor Segmentation, Progression Assessment, and Overall Survival Prediction in the BRATS Challengecited by 511
  16. 2022Diffusion Models for Adversarial Purificationcited by 476
  17. 2023Universal Guidance for Diffusion Modelscited by 437
  18. 2017MoDL: Model Based Deep Learning Architecture for Inverse Problemscited by 387
  19. 2019Sliced Score Matching: A Scalable Approach to Density and Score Estimationcited by 384
  20. 2022AMOS: A Large-Scale Abdominal Multi-Organ Benchmark for Versatile Medical Image Segmentationcited by 351
  21. 2021Knowledge Distillation in Iterative Generative Models for Improved Sampling Speedcited by 348
  22. 2022Analytic-DPM: an Analytic Estimate of the Optimal Reverse Variance in Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 334
  23. 2020CHAOS Challenge -- Combined (CT-MR) Healthy Abdominal Organ Segmentationcited by 309
  24. 2021Come-Closer-Diffuse-Faster: Accelerating Conditional Diffusion Models for Inverse Problems through Stochastic Contractioncited by 307
  25. 2021Robust Compressed Sensing MRI with Deep Generative Priorscited by 286
  26. 2016A Kernelized Stein Discrepancy for Goodness-of-fit Tests and Model Evaluationcited by 236
  27. 2022Restoring Vision in Adverse Weather Conditions with Patch-Based Denoising Diffusion Modelscited by 215
  28. 2022Dual Diffusion Implicit Bridges for Image-to-Image Translationcited by 213
  29. 2021More Control for Free! Image Synthesis with Semantic Diffusion Guidancecited by 212
  30. 2023Solving Inverse Problems with Latent Diffusion Models via Hard Data Consistencycited by 182
  31. 2022EGSDE: Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation via Energy-Guided Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 172
  32. 2023DDFM: Denoising Diffusion Model for Multi-Modality Image Fusioncited by 153
  33. 2015Generic decoding of seen and imagined objects using hierarchical visual featurescited by 120
  34. 2022Differentially Private Diffusion Modelscited by 119
  35. 2019Standardized Assessment of Automatic Segmentation of White Matter Hyperintensities and Results of the WMH Segmentation Challengecited by 115
  36. 2019Unsupervised Anomaly Localization using Variational Auto-Encoderscited by 73
  37. 2022MR Image Denoising and Super-Resolution Using Regularized Reverse Diffusioncited by 67
  38. 2020Unsupervised Lesion Detection via Image Restoration with a Normative Priorcited by 65

50 most cited of 79 All 79 (JSON)

Built on by

Cited by year

Citing papers per year: 2024: 5; 2025: 4.

9 papers.

  1. 2024Diffusion Models Meet Remote Sensing: Principles, Methods, and Perspectivescited by 27
  2. 2024Noise Level Adaptive Diffusion Model for Robust Reconstruction of Accelerated MRIcited by 6
  3. 2024Diffuse-UDA: Addressing Unsupervised Domain Adaptation in Medical Image Segmentation with Appearance and Structure Aligned Diffusion Modelscited by 6
  4. 2024Robust multi-coil MRI reconstruction via self-supervised denoisingcited by 4
  5. 2024Real-time cardiac cine MRI -- A comparison of a diffusion probabilistic model with alternative state-of-the-art image reconstruction techniques for undersampled spiral acquisitionscited by 0
  6. 2025Harnessing EHRs for Diffusion-based Anomaly Detection on Chest X-rayscited by 0
  7. 2025GM-LDM: Latent Diffusion Model for Brain Biomarker Identification through Functional Data-Driven Gray Matter Synthesiscited by 0
  8. 2025Mitigating 3D Prostate Biparametric MRI Data Scarcity through Domain Adaptation using Locally-Trained Latent Diffusion Models for Prostate Cancer Detectioncited by 0
  9. 2025Patch-Based Diffusion for Data-Efficient, Radiologist-Preferred MRI Reconstructioncited by 0

Similar, not cited

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. 2024Fast-DDPM: Fast Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Medical Image-to-Image Generation
  4. 2024Accelerating Diffusion Sampling with Optimized Time Steps
  5. 2026VS-DDPM: Efficient Low-Cost Diffusion Model for Medical Modality Translation
  6. 2026Likelihood-Separable Diffusion Inference for Multi-Image MRI Super-Resolution
  7. 2024Discrepancy-based Diffusion Models for Lesion Detection in Brain MRI
  8. 2024Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting