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. 2025 Sep;18(3):775-784.
doi: 10.1007/s12194-025-00931-0. Epub 2025 Jul 1.

A simplified method for generating maximum slope maps in ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging

Ayumu Funaki  1   2 , Masaki Ohkubo  3 , Kazunori Ohashi  4 , Toshiro Shukuya  4 , Yuka Yashima  5 , Kazunori Kubota  5
Affiliations

A simplified method for generating maximum slope maps in ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging

Ayumu Funaki et al. Radiol Phys Technol. 2025 Sep.

Abstract

Clinical measurement of the maximum slope (MS) using ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced (UF-DCE) breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is typically performed by placing a region of interest (ROI) in the most enhanced area within a lesion. However, previous studies have not clarified whether visually identified enhanced areas consistently exhibit the highest MS values. These ROI-based MS measurements require MS maps to ensure appropriate ROI placement. However, generating MS maps requires specialized software capable of pixel-by-pixel MS calculations, which are available only at a few facilities. Therefore, this study proposed a simplified method for generating MS maps. This method involves subtracting consecutive UF-DCE images, applying temporal maximum intensity projection, normalizing the resulting image by dividing it by the pre-contrast image signal intensity, and converting it to a slope by dividing it by the temporal resolution. The MS maps generated using the proposed method were compared with those obtained using a robust pixel-by-pixel curve-fitting method, in addition to the final-phase UF-DCE images. In all cases with breast lesions (n = 13), the signal intensity distributions on the proposed MS maps closely resembled those on the curve-fitting maps, with a significantly higher similarity than those on the final-phase UF-DCE images (p < 0.001). The derived mean absolute error of MS values after regression-based modification was 0.78 ± 0.72 (%/s). The proposed method improves the reliability of ROI placement in conventional ROI-based MS measurements and supports the direct quantification of MS values from map pixel data.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI; Magnetic resonance imaging; Maximum slope; Ultrafast.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Ethical approval: This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center (approval number: 22130). Due to the retrospective nature of the study, the requirement for written informed consent was waived. The study adhered to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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