# Hierarchical LoG Bayesian Neural Network for Enhanced Aorta Segmentation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10615 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.10615/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 15 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [Pyramid Scene Parsing Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01105/) (2016)
- [TransUNet: Transformers Make Strong Encoders for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.04306/) (2021)
- [3D U-Net: Learning Dense Volumetric Segmentation from Sparse Annotation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.06650/) (2016)
- [Attention U-Net: Learning Where to Look for the Pancreas](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.03999/) (2018)
- [UNETR: Transformers for 3D Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10504/) (2021)
- [Swin UNETR: Swin Transformers for Semantic Segmentation of Brain Tumors in MRI Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.01266/) (2022)
- [Gated-SCNN: Gated Shape CNNs for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.05740/) (2019)
- [The One Hundred Layers Tiramisu: Fully Convolutional DenseNets for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.09326/) (2016)
- [UNETR++: Delving into Efficient and Accurate 3D Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04497/) (2022)
- [Explanation and Use of Uncertainty Quantified by Bayesian Neural Network Classifiers for Breast Histopathology Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12575/) (2020)
- [AI-based Aortic Vessel Tree Segmentation for Cardiovascular Diseases Treatment: Status Quo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.02998/) (2021)
- [Uncertainty Quantification using Variational Inference for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.07588/) (2020)
- [ConvFormer: Combining CNN and Transformer for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.08564/) (2022)
- [Geometric Uncertainty in Patient-Specific Cardiovascular Modeling with Convolutional Dropout Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.07395/) (2020)

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

- [AI-Powered Automated Model Construction for Patient-Specific CFD Simulations of Aortic Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12515/) (2025)
- [AortaDiff: Volume-Guided Conditional Diffusion Models for Multi-Branch Aortic Surface Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13404/) (2025)
- [Sketch2CT: Multimodal Diffusion for Structure-Aware 3D Medical Volume Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.22509/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate segmentation of the aorta and its associated arch branches is crucial for diagnosing aortic diseases. While deep learning techniques have significantly improved aorta segmentation, they remain challenging due to the intricate multiscale structure and the complexity of the surrounding tissues. This paper presents a novel approach for enhancing aorta segmentation using a Bayesian neural network-based hierarchical Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) model. Our model consists of a 3D U-Net stream and a hierarchical LoG stream: the former provides an initial aorta segmentation, and the latter enhances blood vessel detection across varying scales by learning suitable LoG kernels, enabling self-adaptive handling of different parts of the aorta vessels with significant scale differences. We employ a Bayesian method to parameterize the LoG stream and provide confidence intervals for the segmentation results, ensuring robustness and reliability of the prediction for vascular medical image analysts. Experimental results show that our model can accurately segment main and supra-aortic vessels, yielding at least a 3% gain in the Dice coefficient over state-of-the-art methods across multiple volumes drawn from two aorta datasets, and can provide reliable confidence intervals for different parts of the aorta. The code is available at https://github.com/adlsn/LoGBNet.