Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming medical imaging by enabling capabilities such as data synthesis, image enhancement, modality translation, and spatiotemporal modeling. This review presents a comprehensive and forward-looking synthesis of recent advances in generative modeling—including generative adversarial networks (GANs), variational autoencoders (VAEs), diffusion models, and emerging multimodal foundation architectures—and evaluates their expanding roles across the clinical imaging continuum. We systematically examine how generative AI contributes to key stages of the imaging workflow, from acquisition and reconstruction to cross-modality synthesis, diagnostic support, treatment planning, and prognosis prediction. Emphasis is placed on both retrospective and prospective clinical scenarios, where generative models help address longstanding challenges such as data scarcity, standardization, and integration across modalities. To promote rigorous benchmarking and translational readiness, we propose a 3-tiered evaluation framework encompassing pixel-level fidelity, feature-level realism, and task-level clinical relevance. We also identify critical obstacles to real-world deployment, including limited generalization under domain shift, risks of hallucinated or unreliable features, data scarcity and privacy concerns, as well as stringent regulatory and ethical constraints. Finally, we explore the convergence of generative AI with large-scale foundation models, highlighting how this synergy may enable the next generation of scalable, reliable, and clinically integrated imaging systems. By charting technical progress and translational pathways, this review aims to guide future research and foster interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of AI, medicine, and biomedical engineering.
| • | Comprehensive survey of key generative AI models: We systematically explore the theoretical foundations and practical applications of GANs, VAEs, DPMs, and sequence modeling architectures (Transformers, Mamba, AR models), as well as FMs |
| • | Integration with the clinical workflow: We analyze how generative models are applied across acquisition and reconstruction, diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic stages, enabling static image synthesis, restoration, dynamic image generation, treatment planning, and disease progression modeling within clinical workflows. |
| • | Proposal of a multi-level evaluation framework: We propose a structured evaluation framework that assesses generative models at 3 levels: pixel-level fidelity, feature- and distribution-level consistency, and clinical-level applicability. This framework aims to bridge technical performance with clinical utility and supports standardized benchmarking across tasks. |
| • | Discussion of challenges, limitations, and future directions: We examine prevailing challenges that hinder the clinical translation of generative AI, including limited generalizability, high computational demands, insufficient interpretability, and regulatory uncertainty, and discuss their implications for future research and model deployment. |
| • | Text-to-image synthesis. Radiology reports and clinical metadata often contain valuable diagnostic cues but lack paired imaging for direct use. To bridge this gap, latent diffusion models have enabled text-to-image generation, aligning textual findings with synthetic images. For example, Chest-diffusion [50] generated chest x-rays from reports, enriching datasets for rare pathologies and improving interpretability. Extending this idea, MediSyn [51] generalized across modalities, creating diverse synthetic scans guided by textual or clinical prompts. These approaches improve the alignment between clinical documentation and imaging, expanding data availability for diagnostic model training. |
| • | Image-to-image synthesis. In clinical workflows, missing or degraded modalities (e.g., unavailable CT in PET/MRI workflows) compromise diagnosis and treatment planning. Image-to-image synthesis has addressed this by translating between modalities while preserving structural fidelity [52]. CycleGAN [53,54] demonstrated the feasibility of bidirectional mappings between CT, PET, and MRI without paired data, while transformer-based models such as ResViT [55] further improved spatial consistency and cross-modality alignment. More recently, diffusion-based methods [29,56] further enhanced anatomical preservation, enabling robust modality completion and zero-shot translation. These methods have directly reduced the impact of incomplete or inconsistent imaging in clinical pipelines. |
| • | Anatomically guided synthesis. A persistent limitation of generative synthesis is the risk of anatomically implausible outputs. To overcome this, anatomical priors such as segmentation masks or vascular maps have been embedded into the generation process. For instance, the vascular-guided GAN [57] preserved fine vessel structures in retinal fundus images, while the segmentation-guided diffusion model [58] allowed controllable synthesis across multiple organs and modalities. By integrating structural constraints, these methods enhanced both interpretability and clinical reliability, making synthetic data more suitable for lesion augmentation and rare disease modeling. |
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |