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Specialty:
Pediatric Neurology
Department Affiliation:
Pediatrics
Hospital Affiliation:
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital
UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center
State License:
A43996
Phone:
310-825-6196
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  • About Me
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About Me

Preferred Name: Raman Sankar

  • Member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Foundation
  • Member of the Commission on Neurobiology of the International League Against Epilepsy
  • Editorial Board member of Epilepsy & Behavior
  • Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology
  • Elected Member of the American Pediatric Society
  • Member of the American Epilepsy Society, Child Neurology Society and the Society for Neuroscience

Patient Stories

Gio’s Journey
Links
uclahealth.org/neurology
Primary Office
Westwood Pediatrics
200 UCLA Medical Plaza
Suite 265
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Get Directions
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Phone
310-825-6196
Fax
310-206-5146
Secondary Office
Santa Monica Pediatric Specialty Care
1260 15th St.
Suite 1024
Santa Monica, CA 90404
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Phone
(424) 259-8570
Medical Board Certifications
Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1995
Fellowship
Pediatric Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, 1989-1991
Residency
Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, 1988-1989
Residency 2
Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, 1987-1988
Internship
Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, 1986-1987
Degree
Tulane University School of Medicine, MD, 1986
University of Washington Dept. of Psychology, PhD, 1974
Interests
  • Childhood and Adolescent Epilepsy

    Absence Seizures

    Absence seizures are a type of epilepsy. An absence seizure causes you to blank out or stare into space for a few seconds. Absence seizures usually occur in children between ages 4 and 14. t’s uncommon for absence seizures to continue into adulthood. But it’s possible to have an absence seizure at any age. 
    Learn more >
  • Epilepsy Surgery
  • General Pediatric Neurology
  • Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy
  • Pediatric Neurology
Research Interests

Dr. Sankar's laboratory research has addressed the mechanisms of seizure-induced injury and epileptogenicity in the developing brain, and is funded by the NINDS, NIH. Present research also includes investigations on improving the throughput for screening compounds for antiepileptogenic action on the developing brain and modeling the comorbidity of depression that accompanies epileptogenesis. Recent work by Drs. Mazarati and Sankar have demonstrated connections between the epileptic state, physiologic stress, inflammation and how these factors modify the serotonergic tone in the brain stem-hippocampal pathways.

Clinical research interests include the development of improved diagnostics in the evaluation of infants and children for epilepsy surgery, applications of dietary therapy (ketogenic diet, modified Atkins, low-glycemic index dietary therapy) in the treatment of seizure disorders, childhood absence epilepsy (0ngoing NIH funded multi-center study, and anticonvulsant drug trials.

Publications

Link to complete list of publications >

Books Edited (Recent)

  1. Pediatric Epilepsy: Diagnosis and Therapy, Third Edition, Editors: Pellock JM, Dodson WE, Bourgeois BFD, Nordli DB, Sankar R. 2008, Demos Publishing, New York.
  2. Epilepsy: Mechanisms, Models, and Translational Perspectives, Editors: Rho JM, Sankar R, Stafstrom C., 2010, CRC Press / Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, Florida.

Selected Recent Articles

  1. Sankar R, Auvin S, Kwon YS, Pineda E, Shin D, Mazarati A. Evaluation of development-specific targets for antiepileptogenic therapy using rapid kindling. Epilepsia 51(Suppl. 3):39-42, 2010.
  2. Auvin S, Shin D, Mazarati A, Sankar R. Inflammation induced by LPS enhances epileptogenesis in immature rat and may be partially reversible by IL-1Ra. Epilepsia 51(Suppl. 3):34-38, 2010.
  3. Lerner, JT, Salamon N, Sankar R. Clinical profile of vigabatrin as monotherapy for the treatment of infantile spasms. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 6:731-740, 2010.
  4. Sankar R, Glauser TA. Understanding therapeutic equivalence in epilepsy. CNS Spectr 15(2):112-123, 2010.
  5. Zhao Y, Fung C, Shin D, Shin BC, Thamotharan S, Sankar R, Ehninger D, Silva A, Devaskar SU. Neuronal glucose transporter isoform 3 deficiency demonstrates features of the autism spectrum disorder. Mol Psychiatr 15:286-299, 2010.
  6. Hemb M, Velasco TR, Parnes M, Wu JY, Lerner JT, Matsumoto J, Yudovin S, Shields WD, Sankar R, Salamon N, Vinters HV, and Mathern GW. Improved Outcomes in Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery: The UCLA Experience 1986 to 2008. Neurology 74:1768-1775, 2010.
  7. Mazarati A, Pineda E, Shin D, Tio D, Taylor AN, Sankar R. Comorbidity between epilepsy and depression: role of hippocampal interleukin-1-beta. Neurobiol Dis 37:461-467, 2010.
  8. Auvin S, Mazarati A, Shin D, Sankar R. Inflammation enhances epileptogenesis in the developing rat brain. Neurobiol Dis 40:303-310, 2010.
  9. Wu JY, Salamon N, Kirsch H, Mantle MM, Nagarajan SS, Kurelowech L, Quint P, Sankar R, Shields WD, Mathern GW. Non-invasive testing, early surgery and seizure freedom in tuberous sclerosis complex. Neurology 74:392-398, 2010.
  10. Wu JY, Sankar R, Lerner JT, Matsumoto, JH, Vinters HV, Mathern GW. Removing Interictal Fast Ripples on Electrocorticography Linked with Seizure Freedom in Children. Neurology 75:1686-1694, 2010.
  11. Fung C, Shin D, Shin B-C, Sankar R, Chaudhuri G, Devaskar SU. Hypoxic-ischemic brain injury exacerbates neuronal apoptosis and precipitates spontaneous seizures in glucose transporter isoform 3 heterozygous null mice. J Neurosci Res 88:3386-3398, 2010.
  12. Caplan R, Levitt J, Siddarth, P, Wu KN, Gurbani S, Shields WD, Sankar R. Language and Brain Volumes in Children with Epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav 17:402-407, 2010.
  13. Caplan R, Siddarth P, Levitt J, Gurbani S, Shields WD, Sankar R. Suicidality and brain volumes in pediatric epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav 18:286-290, 2010.
  14. Pineda EA, Hensler JG, Sankar R, Shin D, Burke TF, Mazarati AM. Plasticity of presynaptic and postsynaptic serotonin 1A receptors in an animal model of epilepsy-associated depression. Neuropsychopharmacology 2011 (Feb 23, Epub ahead of print)
In The News
Q&A Regarding Hemispherectomy in the Los Angeles Times
Awards
2018 Los Angeles Magazine Top Doctors
Raman Sankar, MD, PhD click here to update your profile
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