# An Evidential-enhanced Tri-Branch Consistency Learning Method for Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.07032 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07032/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 30 of its 52 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 30)

- [What Uncertainties Do We Need in Bayesian Deep Learning for Computer Vision?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.04977/) (2017)
- [Generalized Cross Entropy Loss for Training Deep Neural Networks with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.07836/) (2018)
- [Evidential Deep Learning to Quantify Classification Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01768/) (2018)
- [Pseudo-Labeling and Confirmation Bias in Deep Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.02983/) (2019)
- [Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation with Cross Pseudo Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.01226/) (2021)
- [Uncertainty-aware Self-ensembling Model for Semi-supervised 3D Left Atrium Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07034/) (2019)
- [Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation with Cross-Consistency Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.09005/) (2020)
- [Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation through Dual-task Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.04448/) (2020)
- [ST++: Make Self-training Work Better for Semi-supervised Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05095/) (2021)
- [PseudoSeg: Designing Pseudo Labels for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.09713/) (2020)
- [Not-so-supervised: a survey of semi-supervised, multi-instance, and transfer learning in medical image analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.06353/) (2018)
- [Shape-aware Semi-supervised 3D Semantic Segmentation for Medical Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10732/) (2020)
- [Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation with High- and Low-level Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.05724/) (2019)
- [Transformation Consistent Self-ensembling Model for Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.00348/) (2019)
- [DS-TransUNet:Dual Swin Transformer U-Net for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06716/) (2021)
- [Semi-supervised Semantic Segmentation with Directional Context-aware Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.14133/) (2021)
- [Mutual Consistency Learning for Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.09960/) (2021)
- [Efficient Semi-Supervised Gross Target Volume of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Segmentation via Uncertainty Rectified Pyramid Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07042/) (2020)
- [Re-distributing Biased Pseudo Labels for Semi-supervised Semantic Segmentation: A Baseline Investigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.11279/) (2021)
- [Inconsistency-aware Uncertainty Estimation for Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08762/) (2021)
- [Trustworthy Long-Tailed Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09030/) (2021)
- [UCC: Uncertainty guided Cross-head Co-training for Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10334/) (2022)
- [Cardiac Segmentation with Strong Anatomical Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.08825/) (2020)
- [Double-Uncertainty Weighted Method for Semi-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.09298/) (2020)
- [Self-Loop Uncertainty: A Novel Pseudo-Label for Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09854/) (2020)
- [TBraTS: Trusted Brain Tumor Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.09309/) (2022)
- [Region-Based Evidential Deep Learning to Quantify Uncertainty and Improve Robustness of Brain Tumor Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.06038/) (2022)
- [Evidence fusion with contextual discounting for multi-modality medical image segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11739/) (2022)
- [Belief function-based semi-supervised learning for brain tumor segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.00097/) (2021)
- [Evidential fully convolutional network for semantic segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13544/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Dual-supervised Asymmetric Co-training for Semi-supervised Medical Domain Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20785/) (2025)
- [Evidential Calibrated Uncertainty-Guided Interactive Segmentation paradigm for Ultrasound Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.01072/) (2025)
- [Mutual Evidential Deep Learning for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12418/) (2025)
- [Co-Evidential Fusion with Information Volume for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02492/) (2025)
- [UGPL: Uncertainty-Guided Progressive Learning for Evidence-Based Classification in Computed Tomography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14102/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Semi-supervised segmentation presents a promising approach for large-scale medical image analysis, effectively reducing annotation burdens while achieving comparable performance. This methodology holds substantial potential for streamlining the segmentation process and enhancing its feasibility within clinical settings for translational investigations. While cross-supervised training, based on distinct co-training sub-networks, has become a prevalent paradigm for this task, addressing critical issues such as predication disagreement and label-noise suppression requires further attention and progress in cross-supervised training. In this paper, we introduce an Evidential Tri-Branch Consistency learning framework (ETC-Net) for semi-supervised medical image segmentation. ETC-Net employs three branches: an evidential conservative branch, an evidential progressive branch, and an evidential fusion branch. The first two branches exhibit complementary characteristics, allowing them to address prediction diversity and enhance training stability. We also integrate uncertainty estimation from the evidential learning into cross-supervised training, mitigating the negative impact of erroneous supervision signals. Additionally, the evidential fusion branch capitalizes on the complementary attributes of the first two branches and leverages an evidence-based Dempster-Shafer fusion strategy, supervised by more reliable and accurate pseudo-labels of unlabeled data. Extensive experiments conducted on LA, Pancreas-CT, and ACDC datasets demonstrate that ETC-Net surpasses other state-of-the-art methods for semi-supervised segmentation. The code will be made available in the near future at https://github.com/Medsemiseg.