# MRI super-resolution in ten sampling steps using a diffusion bridge model

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.08819 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08819/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Aug 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07004/) (2016)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [SwinIR: Image Restoration Using Swin Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10257/) (2021)
- [The Perception-Distortion Tradeoff](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06077/) (2017)
- [MambaIR: A Simple Baseline for Image Restoration with State-Space Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.15648/) (2024)
- [Generative Adversarial Network in Medical Imaging: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.07294/) (2018)
- [Gradient Magnitude Similarity Deviation: A Highly Efficient Perceptual Image Quality Index](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1308.3052/) (2013)
- [Structure-Preserving Super Resolution with Gradient Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.13081/) (2020)
- [Efficient Diffusion Model for Image Restoration by Residual Shifting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07319/) (2024)
- [Cycle-guided Denoising Diffusion Probability Model for 3D Cross-modality MRI Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00042/) (2023)
- [Residual Diffusion Bridge Model for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23116/) (2025)
- [Self-Supervised Adversarial Diffusion Models for Fast MRI Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15656/) (2024)
- [MRI Super-Resolution with Deep Learning: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.16854/) (2025)
- [Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of AI-driven MRI Motion Artifact Detection and Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.05071/) (2025)
- [Efficient Vision Mamba for MRI Super-Resolution via Hybrid Selective Scanning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19676/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Objective. MRI provides excellent soft-tissue contrast, but long acquisition times can cause patient discomfort and lead to motion artifacts, forcing a trade-off between spatial resolution and scan time. Diffusion-based super-resolution (SR) reconstructs high-resolution (HR) images from low-resolution (LR) inputs, but typically needs many sampling steps and initializes from a Gaussian prior ill-suited to image restoration. We developed an efficient diffusion framework that reconstructs HR MRI directly from LR data. Approach. We propose super-resolution diffusion bridge model (SR-DBM), a super-resolution diffusion bridge model that casts SR as a stochastic transport between the LR and HR image distributions. Through a Doob's h-transform of a mean-reverting stochastic differential equation, SR-DBM pins the process to the paired HR and LR images at its endpoints, initializing reconstruction from the measured anatomy rather than from Gaussian noise. The HR image is recovered by a deterministic reverse trajectory in which a network predicts the clean image at each of only ten sampling steps. We evaluated SR-DBM on ultra-high-field 7T brain T1 MP2RAGE maps and pelvic T2-weighted prostate images against nine comparison methods using PSNR, SSIM, GMSD, and LPIPS. Main results. SR-DBM attained the highest PSNR and SSIM and the lowest GMSD on both datasets (brain: 27.66+-1.52 dB, 0.96+-0.02, 7.96+-1.86; prostate: 27.87+-2.29 dB, 0.80+-0.05, 8.38+- 1.44), with statistically significant gains over every comparison method (two-sided Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Holm correction, p<0.05). The strongest baseline, SR-EMamba, ranked second. Qualitatively, SR-DBM produced the smallest residual errors and best preserved fine structures and lesions.