Background. Stroke can lead to disruption of the whole-brain network in patients. Acupuncture can modulate the functional network on a large-scale level in healthy individuals. However, whether and how acupuncture can make a potential impact on the disrupted whole-brain network after ischemic stroke remains elusive. Methods. 26 stroke patients with a right hemispheric subcortical infarct were recruited. We gathered the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from patients with stroke and healthy controls in the resting state and after acupuncture intervention, to investigate the instant alterations of the large-scale functional networks. The graph theory analysis was applied using the GRETNA and SPM12 software to construct the whole-brain network and yield the small-world parameters and network efficiency. Results. Compared with the healthy subjects, the stroke patients had a decreased normalized small-worldness (), global efficiency (), and the mean local efficiency () of the whole-brain network in the resting state. There was a correlation between the duration after stroke onset and . Acupuncture improved the patients’ clustering coefficient () and but did not make a significant impact on the and . The postacupuncture variables of the whole-brain network had no association with the time of onset. Conclusion. The poststroke whole-brain network tended to a random network with reduced network efficiency. Acupuncture was able to modulate the disrupted patterns of the whole-brain network following the subcortical ischemic stroke. Our findings shed light on the potential mechanisms of the functional reorganization on poststroke brain networks involving acupuncture intervention from a large-scale perspective.

中文翻译：

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针灸调节缺血性中风后中断的全脑网络：基于图论分析的证据。

背景。中风可导致患者的全脑网络中断。针灸可以在健康个体中大规模调节功能网络。然而，针灸是否以及如何对缺血性中风后被破坏的全脑网络产生潜在影响仍然难以捉摸。方法. 招募了 26 名患有右半球皮质下梗死的中风患者。我们收集了中风患者和健康对照组在静息状态和针灸干预后的功能磁共振成像 (fMRI)，以研究大规模功能网络的即时变化。使用 GRETNA 和 SPM12 软件应用图论分析构建全脑网络并产生小世界参数和网络效率。结果。与健康受试者相比，卒中患者的归一化小世界性 ( )、全局效率 ( )和平均局部效率 ( ) 降低静息状态下的全脑网络。中风发作后的持续时间与. 针灸改善了患者的聚类系数（）和，但没有作出对一个显著的影响和。全脑网络的针刺后变量与发病时间无关。结论. 中风后全脑网络倾向于随机网络，网络效率降低。针灸能够调节皮层下缺血性中风后全脑网络的破坏模式。我们的研究结果从大规模的角度揭示了涉及针灸干预的中风后脑网络功能重组的潜在机制。