# CARDIAG: A Dense Segment Classification Benchmark of Deep Learning Architectures for Coronary Angiography

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.22139 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.22139/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [Encoder-Decoder with Atrous Separable Convolution for Semantic Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.02611/) (2018)
- [SegFormer: Simple and Efficient Design for Semantic Segmentation with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.15203/) (2021)
- [Pyramid Scene Parsing Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01105/) (2016)
- [Rethinking Atrous Convolution for Semantic Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.05587/) (2017)
- [Attention U-Net: Learning Where to Look for the Pancreas](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.03999/) (2018)
- [Unified Perceptual Parsing for Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10221/) (2018)
- [Averaging Weights Leads to Wider Optima and Better Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.05407/) (2018)
- [Geometric Deep Learning: Grids, Groups, Graphs, Geodesics, and Gauges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13478/) (2021)
- [ConvNeXt V2: Co-designing and Scaling ConvNets with Masked Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00808/) (2023)
- [3D MRI brain tumor segmentation using autoencoder regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.11654/) (2018)
- [clDice -- A Novel Topology-Preserving Loss Function for Tubular Structure Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.07311/) (2020)
- [SegMamba: Long-range Sequential Modeling Mamba For 3D Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.13560/) (2024)
- [SegNeXt: Rethinking Convolutional Attention Design for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.08575/) (2022)
- [MedNeXt: Transformer-driven Scaling of ConvNets for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09975/) (2023)
- [Mamba-UNet: UNet-Like Pure Visual Mamba for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05079/) (2024)
- [TorchXRayVision: A library of chest X-ray datasets and models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.00595/) (2021)
- [AGMN: Association Graph-based Graph Matching Network for Coronary Artery Semantic Labeling on Invasive Coronary Angiograms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.04733/) (2023)
- [YOLO-Angio: An Algorithm for Coronary Anatomy Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15898/) (2023)
- [Coronary Artery Semantic Labeling using Edge Attention Graph Matching Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12327/) (2023)
- [A Deep Learning Model for Coronary Artery Segmentation and Quantitative Stenosis Detection in Angiographic Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00492/) (2024)
- [CardioSyntax: end-to-end SYNTAX score prediction -- dataset, benchmark and method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.19894/) (2024)
- [Diffusion-Based User-Guided Data Augmentation for Coronary Stenosis Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00438/) (2025)
- [Multi-graph Graph Matching for Coronary Artery Semantic Labeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.15894/) (2024)
- [Multivessel Coronary Artery Segmentation and Stenosis Localisation using Ensemble Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.17954/) (2023)
- [MPSeg : Multi-Phase strategy for coronary artery Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.10306/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate pixel-level classification of coronary angiograms is critical for cardiovascular disease assessment, yet the field lacks standardized evaluation protocols. In this work we demonstrate a new benchmark for the assessment of deep learning models which densely classify pixels of coronary angiograms to one of SYNTAX classes (or background). The evaluation covers 24 distinct architectures starting with classic convnets to recent state-space-based vision algorithms. We release CARDIAG - a multi-center, multi-label dataset which we carefully split to reliably compute metrics, accounting for diameter error, overlap, centerline quality and calibration. The data contains SYNTAX labels, binary, uncertainty and segmentation masks as well as intermediate frames together with the selected non-sensitive DICOM metadata. From the multitude of algorithms, we nominate ConvNeXt V2 encoder with DeepLab V3 Plus decoder as the best performing, achieving macro F1=0.456, which we then ensemble with Mamba U-Net and Feature Pyramid Network, for an increased F1=0.479. We demonstrate all the architectures to be well calibrated and determine the generalization of the top 5 methods, together with the data efficiency of these architectures. We highlight the importance of both high-resolution and low-resolution features in encoding. We also demonstrate the model correctness in the context of patient demographic, vessel sides and projection angle configurations. Overall the released benchmark allows for future studies to robustly and rigorously assess the proposals, not only for SYNTAX segmentation, but lesion detection and many more.