# SpineCLUE: Automatic Vertebrae Identification Using Contrastive Learning and Uncertainty Estimation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.07271 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07271/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jan 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Dropout as a Bayesian Approximation: Representing Model Uncertainty in Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02142/) (2015)
- [Supervised Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11362/) (2020)
- [TransUNet: Transformers Make Strong Encoders for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.04306/) (2021)
- [Data-Efficient Image Recognition with Contrastive Predictive Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.09272/) (2019)
- [Learning Confidence for Out-of-Distribution Detection in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.04865/) (2018)
- [CTSpine1K: A Large-Scale Dataset for Spinal Vertebrae Segmentation in Computed Tomography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.14711/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [An Optimization-based Baseline for Rigid 2D/3D Registration Applied to Spine Surgical Navigation Using CMA-ES](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05642/) (2024)
- [Fully Differentiable Correlation-driven 2D/3D Registration for X-ray to CT Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02498/) (2024)
- [Community-Level Modeling of Gyral Folding Patterns for Robust and Anatomically Informed Individualized Brain Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01482/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Vertebrae identification in arbitrary fields-of-view plays a crucial role in diagnosing spine disease. Most spine CT contain only local regions, such as the neck, chest, and abdomen. Therefore, identification should not depend on specific vertebrae or a particular number of vertebrae being visible. Existing methods at the spine-level are unable to meet this challenge. In this paper, we propose a three-stage method to address the challenges in 3D CT vertebrae identification at vertebrae-level. By sequentially performing the tasks of vertebrae localization, segmentation, and identification, the anatomical prior information of the vertebrae is effectively utilized throughout the process. Specifically, we introduce a dual-factor density clustering algorithm to acquire localization information for individual vertebra, thereby facilitating subsequent segmentation and identification processes. In addition, to tackle the issue of interclass similarity and intra-class variability, we pre-train our identification network by using a supervised contrastive learning method. To further optimize the identification results, we estimated the uncertainty of the classification network and utilized the message fusion module to combine the uncertainty scores, while aggregating global information about the spine. Our method achieves state-of-the-art results on the VerSe19 and VerSe20 challenge benchmarks. Additionally, our approach demonstrates outstanding generalization performance on an collected dataset containing a wide range of abnormal cases.