The disrupted topological properties of structural networks showed recovery in ischemic stroke patients: a longitudinal design study

INTRODUCTION: Stroke is one of the leading causes of substantial disability worldwide. Previous studies have shown brain functional and structural alterations in adults with stroke. However, few studies have examined the longitudinal reorganization in whole-brain structural networks in stroke. METHODS: Here, we applied graph theoretical analysis to investigate the longitudinal topological organization of white matter networks in 20 ischemic stroke patients with a one-month interval between two timepoints. Two sets of clinical scores, Fugl-Meyer motor assessment (FMA) and neurological deficit scores (NDS), were assessed for all patients on the day the image data were collected. RESULTS: The stroke patients exhibited significant increases in FMA scores and significant reductions in DNS between the two timepoints. All groups exhibited small-world organization (σ > 1) in the brain structural network, including a high clustering coefficient (γ > 1) and a low normalized characteristic path length (λ ≈ 1). However, compared to healthy controls, stroke patients showed significant decrease in nodal characteristics at the first timepoint, primarily in the right supplementary motor area, right middle temporal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobe, right postcentral gyrus and left posterior cingulate gyrus. Longitudinal results demonstrated that altered nodal characteristics were partially restored one month later. Additionally, significant correlations between the nodal characteristics of the right supplementary motor area and the clinical scale scores (FMA and NDS) were observed in stroke patients. Similar behavioral-neuroimaging correlations were found in the right inferior parietal lobe. CONCLUSION: Altered topological properties may be an effect of stroke, which can be modulated during recovery. The longitudinal results and the neuroimaging-behavioral relationship may provide information for understanding brain recovery from stroke. Future studies should detect whether observed changes in structural topological properties can predict the recovery of daily cognitive function in stroke. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12868-021-00652-1.