# DiffUS: Differentiable Ultrasound Rendering from Volumetric Imaging

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06768 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06768/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 23 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [SynthSeg: Segmentation of brain MRI scans of any contrast and resolution without retraining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.09559/) (2021)
- [Fast Auto-Differentiable Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs for Solving Inverse Problems in Intraoperative Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12737/) (2022)
- [Intraoperative 2D/3D Image Registration via Differentiable X-ray Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06358/) (2023)
- [Fully Convolutional Slice-to-Volume Reconstruction for Single-Stack MRI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03102/) (2023)
- [UltraRay: Introducing Full-Path Ray Tracing in Physics-Based Ultrasound Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.05828/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [What neurosurgeons need to see: synthetic intra-operative MRI from ultrasound for brain-shift compensation in brain tumour surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.07658/) (2026)
- [Shadow Reduction in Ultrasound Imaging Using Differentiable Simulation and Radiance Field Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.29373/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Intraoperative ultrasound imaging provides real-time guidance during numerous surgical procedures, but its interpretation is complicated by noise, artifacts, and poor alignment with high-resolution preoperative MRI/CT scans. To bridge the gap between reoperative planning and intraoperative guidance, we present DiffUS, a physics-based, differentiable ultrasound renderer that synthesizes realistic B-mode images from volumetric imaging. DiffUS first converts MRI 3D scans into acoustic impedance volumes using a machine learning approach. Next, we simulate ultrasound beam propagation using ray tracing with coupled reflection-transmission equations. DiffUS formulates wave propagation as a sparse linear system that captures multiple internal reflections. Finally, we reconstruct B-mode images via depth-resolved echo extraction across fan-shaped acquisition geometry, incorporating realistic artifacts including speckle noise and depth-dependent degradation. DiffUS is entirely implemented as differentiable tensor operations in PyTorch, enabling gradient-based optimization for downstream applications such as slice-to-volume registration and volumetric reconstruction. Evaluation on the ReMIND dataset demonstrates DiffUS's ability to generate anatomically accurate ultrasound images from brain MRI data.