Counterfactual MRI Data Augmentation using Conditional Denoising Diffusion Generative Models

Morão, Pedro, Santinha, Joao, Forghani, Yasna, Loução, Nuno, Gouveia, Pedro, Figueiredo, Mario A. T.

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence 

In this work, we introduce a novel method using conditional denoising diffusion generative models (cDDGMs) to generate counterfactual magnetic resonance (MR) images that simulate different IAP without altering patient anatomy. We demonstrate that using these counterfactual images for data augmentation can improve segmentation accuracy, particularly in out-of-distribution settings, enhancing the overall generalizability and robustness of DL models across diverse imaging conditions. Our approach shows promise in addressing domain and covariate shifts in medical imaging.