There are different diagnostic modalities to investigate atherosclerosis cervical artery disease in suspected stroke patients. We aimed to test the concordance of findings of the two most widely used diagnostic modalities in stroke patients: duplex ultrasound (DUS) and computerized tomographic angiography (CTA). A total of 100 stroke patients were retrospectively included in the study, all of them had DUS followed by CTA. Discrepancies of DUS compared to the CTA results in both the internal carotid and vertebral arteries were found in 44% of the patients. The patients with significant differences in diagnostic results were characterized by older age. Evaluation of the degree of carotid artery stenosis revealed vast differences in patients with 50–69% stenosis found by DUS, in which 45.5% of them had a different percentage of stenosis found by CTA. In studying the degree of stenosis of the vertebral artery, only 47.1% of the patients with more than 50% stenosis found by DUS had the same results with CTA, while the remaining revealed normal or less than 50% stenosis by CTA. The current study emphasizes that CTA is more accurate than DUS in the evaluation of stenosis of the cervical arteries including both the internal carotid and vertebral arteries.

Retrospective study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical symptomatology of discopathies before and 7 days after treatment with one of the following: intravenous dexamethasone, selective nerve root block (SNRB), and systemic treatment with different nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Radiculopathy is a clinical condition in which dysfunction of one or more nerves occurs due to mechanical compression and/or chemical irritation of the nerve roots. Most often located in the lumbar spine, radiculopathy remains one of the most common complaints in primary health. Some patients responded well to conservative treatment. However, those who show no improvement may benefit from more invasive treatment options, such as intravenous corticosteroids, spinal injections, and surgical procedures. We conducted a retrospective study of 81 male and female patients aged 18 years and above who had radicular pain and were referred to our facility over a 7-year period. Of the 100 patients assessed for eligibility, 19 patients were not included in the study due to malignancy or surgical intervention, 32 patients received intravenous dexamethasone, 24 patients received SNRB, and 25 received various NSAIDs as the control group. The visual analog scale, straight leg raise test and neurological deficits were assessed to evaluate the patients before and after receiving treatment. All patients underwent spinal computed tomography to confirm the diagnosis of disc herniation. Pearson chi-squared test, Kruskal–Wallis test, and Mann–Whitney test were used to evaluate the results. Visual analog scale scores and the ability to perform straight leg raise test significantly improved after treatment with dexamethasone, SNRB, and NSAIDs. However, clinical improvement was significantly better in both the dexamethasone and SNRB groups than in the control group. Motor deficits improved significantly after dexamethasone treatment alone. Dexamethasone and SNRB are useful and safe treatment options for treating patients with acute radicular pain. Randomized, double-blinded, control studies are warranted.

The Galilee region of Israel boasts a rich ethnic diversity within its Arab population, encompassing distinct Muslim, Christian, Druze, and Bedouin communities. This preliminary exploratory study uniquely examined potential ethnic and gender differences in ischemic stroke characteristics across these Arab subgroups, which are seldom investigated separately in Israel and are typically studied as a homogeneous “Arab” sector, despite significant variations in their ethnicity, culture, customs, and genetics. The current study aimed to comparatively evaluate stroke characteristics, including recurrence rates, severity, and subtypes, within and across these distinct ethnic groups and between genders. When examining the differences in stroke characteristics between ethnic groups, notable findings emerged. The Bedouin population exhibited significantly higher rates of recurrent strokes than Muslims (M = 0.55, SD = 0.85 vs. M = 0.25, SD = 0.56; p < 0.05). Large vessel strokes were significantly more prevalent among Christians (30%) than Druze (9.9%; p < 0.05). Regarding gender differences within each ethnic group, several disparities were observed. Druze women were six times more likely to experience moderate to severe strokes than their male counterparts (p < 0.05). Interestingly, Druze women also exhibited a higher representation of cardio-embolic stroke (19.8%) compared with Druze men (4.6%; p < 0.001). These findings on the heterogeneity in stroke characteristics across Arab ethnic subgroups and by gender underscore the need to reconsider the approach that views all ethnic groups comprising the Arab sector in Israel as a homogeneous population; instead, they should be investigated as distinct communities with unique stroke profiles, requiring tailored culturally aware community-based prevention programs and personalized therapeutic models. The identified patterns may guide future research to develop refined, individualized, and preventive treatment approaches targeting the distinct risk factors, healthcare contexts, and prevention needs of these diverse Arab populations.

Background/Objectives: Individualized risk estimation after stroke depends on prognostic models, which may not transfer between populations. Jewish and Arab patients with acute stroke in the Western Galilee share one regional center and its protocols. We examined whether mortality, prognostic associations of admission variables and pooled-model calibration differ between them. Methods: This retrospective single-center cohort study included adults with non-lacunar acute ischemic stroke and moderate or greater vessel occlusion admitted to the Galilee Medical Center, Israel, from March 2023 to February 2025. The outcome was in-hospital death. Mortality was compared before and after adjustment for age, sex and stroke severity, and prognostic heterogeneity was tested with interaction terms in Firth penalized regression. Results: Of 499 patients, 289 were Jewish and 210 Arab; Jewish patients were older (mean 72.1 versus 67.5 years) and less often current smokers, with similar sex distribution and stroke severity. Mortality was 11.1% in Jewish and 4.8% in Arab patients (risk ratio 2.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17 to 4.62; adjusted odds ratio 2.05, 95% CI 0.97 to 4.34). In a joint test of age, sex and C-reactive protein (CRP), prognostic associations differed between groups (p = 0.012), mainly because CRP was more weakly associated with death in Jewish patients; white blood cell count showed a similar exploratory pattern. A pooled model without a group term tended to underpredict deaths in Jewish and overpredict them in Arab patients. Conclusions: Within one stroke service, mortality and the prognostic weight of admission variables differed between population groups. These exploratory findings require replication and, if confirmed, would support population-aware validation and recalibration of prognostic models. They concern risk estimation, not treatment, which should follow the same criteria in both groups.