White matter integrity and structural brain network topology in cerebral small vessel disease: The Hamburg city health study

Cerebral small vessel disease is a common finding in the elderly and associated with various clinical sequelae. Previous studies suggest disturbances in the integration capabilities of structural brain networks as a mediating link between imaging and clinical presentations. To what extent cerebral small vessel disease might interfere with other measures of global network topology is not well understood. Connectomes were reconstructed via diffusion weighted imaging in a sample of 930 participants from a population based epidemiologic study. Linear models were fitted testing for an association of graph‐theoretical measures reflecting integration and segregation with both the Peak width of Skeletonized Mean Diffusivity (PSMD) and the load of white matter hyperintensities of presumed vascular origin (WMH). The latter were subdivided in periventricular and deep for an analysis of localisation‐dependent correlations of cerebral small vessel disease. The median WMH volume was 0.6 mL (1.4) and the median PSMD 2.18 mm(2)/s x 10(−4) (0.5). The connectomes showed a median density of 0.880 (0.030), the median values for normalised global efficiency, normalised clustering coefficient, modularity Q and small‐world propensity were 0.780 (0.045), 1.182 (0.034), 0.593 (0.026) and 0.876 (0.040) respectively. An increasing burden of cerebral small vessel disease was significantly associated with a decreased integration and increased segregation and thus decreased small‐worldness of structural brain networks. Even in rather healthy subjects increased cerebral small vessel disease burden is accompanied by topological brain network disturbances. Segregation parameters and small‐worldness might as well contribute to the understanding of the known clinical sequelae of cerebral small vessel disease.