Translating MRI to PET through Conditional Diffusion Models with Enhanced Pathology Awareness

Yitong Li, Igor Yakushev, Dennis M. Hedderich, Christian Wachinger · Mar 19, 2026 · Citations: 0

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Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a widely recognized technique for diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases, offering critical functional insights. However, its high costs and radiation exposure hinder its widespread use. In contrast, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) does not involve such limitations. While MRI also detects neurodegenerative changes, it is less sensitive for diagnosis compared to PET. To overcome such limitations, one approach is to generate synthetic PET from MRI. Recent advances in generative models have paved the way for cross-modality medical image translation; however, existing methods largely emphasize structural preservation while neglecting the critical need for pathology awareness. To address this gap, we propose PASTA, a novel image translation framework built on conditional diffusion models with enhanced pathology awareness. PASTA surpasses state-of-the-art methods by preserving both structural and pathological details through its highly interactive dual-arm architecture and multi-modal condition integration. Additionally, we introduce a novel cycle exchange consistency and volumetric generation strategy that significantly enhances PASTA's ability to produce high-quality 3D PET images. Our qualitative and quantitative results demonstrate the high quality and pathology awareness of the synthesized PET scans. For Alzheimer's diagnosis, the performance of these synthesized scans improves over MRI by 4%, almost reaching the performance of actual PET. Our code is available at https://github.com/ai-med/PASTA.

Abstract-only analysis — low confidence

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This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.
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Main weakness

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Trust level

Low

Usefulness score

0/100 • Low

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Human Feedback Signal

Not explicit in abstract metadata

Evaluation Signal

Weak / implicit signal

Usefulness for eval research

Adjacent candidate

Extraction confidence 15%

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What We Could Verify

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