The Neuromuscular Research Center (NRC), under the direction of Dr. K. Sivakumar, treats and researches neuromuscular diseases.  The center is located in Scottsdale, Arizona near the 101 Loop and Shea.  The NRC staff includes a dedicated infusion nurse and a dedicated research coordinator.  The center also coordinates a multi-disciplinary clinic for patients diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gherig's disease, and various types of muscular dystrophy.

Kumaraswamy Sivakumar, M. D.
Neuromuscular Research Center

Current Medical Practice:
Evaluation and treatment of patients with neuromuscular disorders
Electromyography and Nerve conduction studies
Muscle & nerve biopsies  (surgery and interpretation of pathology)
Clinical research in neuromuscular diseases
Enzyme histochemical, immunological and molecular genetic methods in neuromuscular research.
General clinical neurology

Professional Qualifications:  
Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, specialty of Neurology.
Diplomate of the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine.
Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, specialty of Clinical Neurophysiology.
Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology , specialty of Neuromuscular diseases
License, Maryland (inactive) and Arizona.
Member of the Royal College of Physicians, UK.
Doctor of Medicine (M.B., B.S. British  system).

Professional history:

Oct 2000-Current   Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology
University of Arizona, College of Medicine
Barrow Neurological Institute
Director, Neuromuscular Research Center
Myasthenia, Myositis, Immune Neuropathy, ALS and Muscular Dystrophy clinics

May 2001-July 2004 Founder and Director, MDA-ALS Center
Director, MDA Clinic
Barrow Neurological Institute
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Scottsdale Health care
Phoenix, AZ
 

May 2001- July 2004 
Chief, Neuromuscular Diseases Section  
Barrow Neurological Institute
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Phoenix, AZ

Oct 1999 – July 2003
Director, Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Program
Barrow Neurological Institute
Phoenix, AZ 

Sept 1997 – May 2001
Attending Neurologist
Director, Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic
Director, Neuromuscular Research Program.
Neuromuscular Diseases Section
Division of Neurology
Barrow Neurological Institute
Phoenix AZ

May 1997  Study of Inherited Neuromuscular Diseases (NIH sponsored)
Neurologist
Mongolia (Asia) 

1996-1997  Visiting Scientist
Neuromuscular Diseases Section
Medical Neurology Branch
National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

1993-1996  Clinical Associate (Neuromuscular Diseases)
Medical Neurology Branch
National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

July-Nov1995  Consultant Neurologist
York Health Service-NHS Trust
York, England. 

1992-93  Chief Resident (Neurology).
The Mount Sinai Medical School & Hospital, New York.

1990-93  Resident in Neurology.
The Mount Sinai Medical School & Hospital, New York.

1988-90  Training as an Internist.
Cardiology, nephrology, rheumatology, neurology and internal medicine. 
Hull Royal Infirmary , Kingston General and Princess Royal Hospitals,
North Humberside, England.      

1987-88  Internship
Professorial units of internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics & gyn.
Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

1981-86  Undergraduate
School of Medicine. U of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Sinnwell TM, Sivakumar K, Soueidan S, Jay C, Frank JA, McLaughlin AC, Dalakas MC. Abnormal energy metabolism of muscle in AZT treated patients observed by 31P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. J Clin Invest 1995;98:126-131.

Vasconcelos O, Sivakumar K, Dalakas MC, Quezado M, Nagle J, Monzon M, Dubnick M, Gajdusek CD, Goldfarb LG. Nonsense mutation in the phosphophructokinase muscle subunit gene associated with retention of intron 10 in one of isolated transcripts in Ashkenazi Jewish Patients with Tarui disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1995;92:10322-10326.

Dalakas MC, Sonies B, Dambrosia JM, Sekul EL, Cupler EJ, Sivakumar K: The efficacy of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin in patients with inclusion body mytositis. Neurology 1997, 48:712-716.

Sivakumar K, Semino-Mora C, Dalakas MC. An inflammatory inclusion body myositis with autoimmune features and a phenotype identical to sporadic inclusion body myositis: studies in 3 families. Brain 1997-120:653-661.

Goldfarb LG, Park K, Cerbenakova, Lee H, Vasconcelos O, Nagle JW, Semino-More C, Sivakumar K, Dalakas MC. Missense mutations in Desmin associated with familial cardiac and skeletal myopthy. Nature genetics 1998, 19:402-403.

Sivakumar K, Sambuughin N, Selenge B, Nagle JW, Baasanjav D, Hudson LD, Goldfarb LG. Novel exon38 protealipid protein gene mutation causing late-onset spastic paraplegie tupe 2 with variable penetrance in female family members, Ann Neurol 1999, 45:680-3.

Dalakas MC, Park K, Semino-Mora C, Lee HS, Sivakumar K, Golffarb LG, Desmin myopathy: a distinct, dital-onset skeletal myopthy with cardiom yopathy caused by mutatuins in the desmin gene. N Engle J Med. 2000, 342:770-780.

Antonellis A, Ellsworth RE, Sambuughin N, Puls I, Abel A, Lee-lin S, Jordanova A, Kremensky I, Funalot B, Christodoulou K, Miffleton LT, Sivakumar K, Ionasescu V, Vance JM, Goldfarb LG, Fischbeck KH, Green ED. Glycyl tRNA Sunthetase Mutations are Responsiblee for Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease Type 2D and Distal Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type V. American Journal of Human Genetic 2003; 72(5):1293-9

Sivakumar K, Kyriakides T, Puls I, Nicholson GA, Funalot B, Antonellis A, Ellsworth RE, Sambuughin N, Chrisodoulou K, Beggs J, Papanicolaou E, Middleton LT, Ionasescu V, Dalakas MC, Green ED, Fischbeck KH, GOldbard LG, Phenotypic spectrum of disorfers associated with glycyl-tRNA synthetase mutations. Brain 2005; 128:2304-14.

Bien-Willner R, Sambughin N, Holley H, Bodensteiner J, Sivakumar K. Childhood disease onset SPG6 family with a novel NIPA1 gene mutation. J child neurol 2006;21(11):974-977.