Karkar, Kameel MichelSchool of Medicine |
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I am a neurologist with subspecialty expertise in epilepsy. Service has been my primary focus since my appointment in 2009 as clinical assistant professor. My clinical service has focused on caring for patients with medically intractable epilepsy, both in the clinic and at the hospital. I have an active outpatient practice devoted to patients with epilepsy that is incompletely controlled with medications. Administratively, I am the medical director of the UHS Epilepsy Clinic. In addition, I attend at the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit of University Hospital where I lead a dedicated group of epilepsy fellows, physician assistants, nurses, and EEG technologists in characterizing patients? seizures and performing presurgical evaluations. One of my key functions as an epileptologist is to collaborate with neurosurgery colleagues on pre-surgical evaluations. In addition, I serve uninsured patients at the Epilepsy Foundation Clinic in San Antonio. Also in collaboration with the Epilepsy Foundation, I co-organized the 2013 Epilepsy Foundation/UT Medicine patient conference, an annual opportunity for patients to interface with epilepsy specialists from UT Medicine and the community; I have regularly given talks to patients and their caregivers at this annual conference since 2010. I have served city and state community physician groups by giving lectures on neurology/epilepsy topics and by providing informal consultations on patient management and EEG interpretation. At the national level, I am a member of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) and the American Clinical Neurophysiology society (ACNS). At AES, I have been a member of two Special Interest Groups (SIGs) since 2010. At the SIG meetings, members vote on topics of interest for presentation and discuss presentations of clinical and research topics. At AES, I am also a member of the Practice Management Committee; while at ACNS, I am a member of the International Relations Committee.
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9/2015 - Present | Medical Director, UHS Seizure Clinic | University Health System, San Antonio, TX |
4/2015 - Present | Coordinator, Epilepsy Research | University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Neurology, San Antonio, TX |
10/2010 - Present | Attending Physician | Baptist Health System, San Antonio, TX |
9/2009 - Present | Attending Physician | Audie L. Murphy Veteran's Administration Medical Center, Neurology, San Antonio, TX |
9/2009 - Present | Attending Physician | University Health System, Neurology, San Antonio, TX |
9/2009 - Present | Assistant Professor/Clinical | University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Neurology, San Antonio, TX |
Year | Degree | Discipline | Institution |
2003 | Clinical Fellowship | Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology | University of California at San Francisco San Francisco , CA |
2001 | Residency | Neurology | Washington University St. Louis , MO |
1998 | Internship | Medicine | Evanston Hospital, Northwestern University Evanston , IL |
1997 | MD | Medicine (Department of Neurology Award at Graduation) | University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine Chicago , IL |
1992 | BS | B.S. in Biomedical Engineering/Pre-med (Magna Cum Laude) | University of California at San Diego San Diego , CA |
Non-lesional Human Focal Epilepsy- My area of research interest is human focal non-lesional epilepsy (FNLE), with special attention to non-lesional frontal lobe epilepsy. FNLE is a challenging clinical problem, as the absence of a lesion is associated with a less favorable chance of achieving seizure freedom with epilepsy surgery. I therefore aim to contribute to the development of novel non-invasive diagnostic tools that could contribute to the success of epilepsy surgery. Over the last few years, I have developed a skillset in research imaging (functional MRI), which I have used to address questions in FNLE. For example, using connectivity tools of fMRI, I am actively investigating how the seizure onset zone (SOZ) is functionally connected with the rest of the cerebral cortex (subject of 2015 AES abstract; manuscript in preparation). I am also testing the hypothesis that cortical areas that are functionally connected to the SOZ overlap with seizure propagation networks, as determined from EEG (abstract accepted for presentation at the 2016 annual AES meeting). My hope is that findings from this research could increase our ability to localize the seizure onset zone, and therefore improve the chances of seizure freedom after epilepsy surgery. |
Date | Description | Institution | # Students |
9/2014 - Present | Epilepsy Journal Club | University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio | 18 students |
Twice per year, I lead clinical neurophysiology fellows and neurology residents in epilepsy journal club discussions. I choose articles with important teaching and clinical values and distribute them ahead of time of the meeting. Each article is assigned to a particular resident or fellow for a formal power-point presentation. I moderate group discussion of the articles. In addition to the moderator, other epilepsy faculty often join in these monthly conferences. | |||
1/2014 - Present | Individual Instruction | University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio | |
9/2009 - Present | Lectures to Residents on EEG and Epilepsy Topics | University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio | 24 students |
Twice per year, I give formal lectures on EEG and clinical epilepsy topics to neurology residents (UT and military), clinical neurophysiology fellows (UT) and medical students rotating on the general neurology clerkship. Each lecture is one-hour long and consists of a combination of theory and patient cases with supporting EEG studies. |
Abstract |
Karkar KM, Lie OV, Salinas F, Soomro A, Szabo CA. Is the irritative zone in focal non-lesional epilepsy functionally connected to the seizure onset region?; 2016 Dec. (Abstract No 3.216, 2016, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Karkar KM, Soomro A, Salinas F, Lie OV, Duong TQ, Szabo CA. Functional connectivity of the seizure-onset zone in human focal non-lesional epilepsy; 2015 Dec. (Abstract No 1.152, 2015, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Pella R, Velez A, Lie O, Morgan L, Karkar K, Szabo C. Pre- and post-neurosurgical longitudinal psychiatric outcome in intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients receiving psychiatric care; 2014 Dec. (Abstract No 2.028, 2014, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Moise AM, Morgan LC, Leary LD, Karkar KM, Lie OV, Jordan, J, Cavazos JE, Caron J, Papanastassiou AM, Szabo CA. Surgical outcome of parietal lobe epilepsy; 2014 Apr. (2014 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting). |
Salinas, FS, Karkar KM, Szabo CA. Resting-state fMRI demonstrates functional connectivity differences in epileptic and control non-human primates; 2013 Dec. (Abstract No 3.169, 2013, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Karkar KM, Lie OV, Wey HY, Salinas F, Lancaster JL, Fox PT, Szabo CA, Duong TQ. Probing intracranial EEG-characterized seizure propagation networks with resting-state functional MRI; 2013 Dec. (Abstract No 3.192, 2013, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Girouard M, Szabo CA, Morgan LC, Karkar KM, Leary LD, Lie OV, Cavazos JE. EMG-Based Seizure Detector: Preliminary Results Comparing a Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizure Detection Algorithm to Video-EEG Recordings; 2013 Dec. (Abstract No 2.037, 2013, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Andrade N, Szabo CA, Morgan LC, Karkar KM, Caron J, Papanastassiou AM. Functional hemispherectomy in adults for refractory status epilepticus; 2013 Dec. (Abstract No 1.247, 2013, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Wang X, Papanastassiou AM, Caron J, Karkar KM, Leary LD, Lie OV, Morgan LC, Szabo CA. Electroclinical presentation of cingulate epilepsies; 2013 Feb. (Abstract No 2.296, 2013, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Karkar K, Wey HY, Kochunov P, Duong TQ, Szabo CA. Functional connectivity of the motor network in human post-stroke epilepsy; 2011 Dec. (Abstract No 3.263, 2011, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Velez AM, Morgan L, Karkar K, Gherman E, Cavazos JE, Szabo CA. Does Treatment of Depression Before Neurosurgical Intervention For Epilepsy Improve Surgical Outcome?; 2011 Dec. (Abstract No 3.290, 2011, American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, www.aesnet.org). |
Journal Article |
McGinity M, Andrade N, Karkar K, Caron JL, Szabo C, Papanastassiou A. Functional hemispherectomy for refractory status epileptics in 2 adults World Neurosurgery 2016 Jul;S1878(16):30471-30475. |
Szabo CA, Morgan LC, Karkar KM, Leary LD, Lie OV, Girouard M, Cavazos JE. Electromyography-based seizure detector: preliminary results comparing a generalized tonic-clonic seizure detection algorithm to video-EEG recordings Epilepsia 2015 Sep;56(9):1432-1437. |
Karkar KM, Lie OV, Szabo CA, Duong TQ. Characterization of seizure generating and propagating regions in human focal epilepsy with resting state functional connectivity MRI Journal of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering 2013 Oct;2(5):451-459. |
Federal |
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Funding Agency | NIH/NINDS |
Title | Brain MRI and Histopathology of the Epileptic Baboon |
Status | Active |
Period | 4/2015 - 3/2016 |
Role | Co-Investigator |
Grant Detail | This study aims to correlate structural (voxel-based morphometry) and functional (resting state) fMRI with histopathology in the epileptic baboon. Resting-state connectivity and BOLD-changes associated with photosensitivity will also be assessed in response to acute and subacute antiepileptic treatment. Dr. Karkar's role has been to examine the functional connectivity between the epileptic network and other brain networks and regions, such as the visual network, triggering and contributing to seizures. |