Najm, Imad, MD - Cleveland FES Center

Imad Michel Najm, MD, is Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute.

Dr Najm received his Medical Doctor degree from Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon in 1988. After one year of internship in Paris, France, Dr Najm became a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Southern California from 1989 till 1992. During that period, Dr Najm’s research focused on the basic mechanisms of status epilepticus induced neuronal injury.

Dr Najm completed his Residency in Adult Neurology at Cleveland Clinic in 1996, and a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy at Cleveland Clinic in 1997.

Dr. Najm received his board certification in adult neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1998, with an added qualification in clinical neurophysiology in 1999.

Between 2000 and 2003, Dr Najm served as the Director of the Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Program at Cleveland Clinic. In 2003, he became the Head of the Section of Adult Epilepsy within the Department of Neurology at Cleveland Clinic and in 2006 he assumed his current position as the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center.

Dr. Najm has over 22 years experience in Clinical and Basic Mechanisms of Epilepsy. This includes conducting numerous research projects dedicated to exploring the topic of mechanisms of epilepsy and malformations of cortical dysplasia.

Publications (Select)

Entire publication list can be found here.

Publications

1: Aung TT, Murayi R, Aung T, Murakami H, Jones SE, Alexopoulos A, Najm I, Wang
ZI. Prospective use of MRI post-processing in the surgical treatment of
MRI-negative orbitofrontal epilepsy. J Neurol Sci. 2020 Apr 8;414:116828. doi:
10.1016/j.jns.2020.116828. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32299025.

2: Yardi R, Morita-Sherman ME, Fitzgerald Z, Punia V, Bena J, Morrison S, Najm I,
Bingaman W, Jehi L. Long-term outcomes of reoperations in epilepsy surgery.
Epilepsia. 2020 Mar;61(3):465-478. doi: 10.1111/epi.16452. Epub 2020 Feb 27.
PubMed PMID: 32108946; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7224413.

3: Wang S, Wang ZI, Tang Y, Alexopoulos AV, Chen C, Katagiri M, Aung T, Najm IM,
Ding M, Wang S, Chauvel P. Localization value of subclinical seizures on scalp
video-EEG in epilepsy presurgical evaluation. Epilepsia. 2019
Dec;60(12):2477-2485. doi: 10.1111/epi.16383. Epub 2019 Nov 21. PubMed PMID:
31755095.

4: McGovern RA, N V Moosa A, Jehi L, Busch R, Ferguson L, Gupta A,
Gonzalez-Martinez J, Wyllie E, Najm I, Bingaman WE. Hemispherectomy in adults and
adolescents: Seizure and functional outcomes in 47 patients. Epilepsia. 2019
Dec;60(12):2416-2427. doi: 10.1111/epi.16378. Epub 2019 Nov 2. PubMed PMID:
31677151; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6911022.

5: Leu C, Stevelink R, Smith AW, Goleva SB, Kanai M, Ferguson L, Campbell C,
Kamatani Y, Okada Y, Sisodiya SM, Cavalleri GL, Koeleman BPC, Lerche H, Jehi L,
Davis LK, Najm IM, Palotie A, Daly MJ, Busch RM; Epi25 Consortium, Lal D.
Polygenic burden in focal and generalized epilepsies. Brain. 2019 Nov
1;142(11):3473-3481. doi: 10.1093/brain/awz292. PubMed PMID: 31608925; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC6821205.

6: Sheikh S, Thompson N, Bingaman W, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Najm I, Jehi L.
(Re)Defining success in epilepsy surgery: The importance of relative seizure
reduction in patient-reported quality of life. Epilepsia. 2019
Oct;60(10):2078-2085. doi: 10.1111/epi.16327. Epub 2019 Aug 28. PubMed PMID:
31460672.

7: Williams S, Hossain M, Ferguson L, Busch RM, Marchi N, Gonzalez-Martinez J,
Perucca E, Najm IM, Ghosh C. Neurovascular Drug Biotransformation Machinery in
Focal Human Epilepsies: Brain CYP3A4 Correlates with Seizure Frequency and
Antiepileptic Drug Therapy. Mol Neurobiol. 2019 Dec;56(12):8392-8407. doi:
10.1007/s12035-019-01673-y. Epub 2019 Jun 26. PubMed PMID: 31243719; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC6854685.

8: Punia V, Bena J, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Bingaman W, Najm I, Stojic A, Prayson R.
Histopathologic substrate of drug-resistant epilepsy in older adults and the
elderly undergoing surgery. Epilepsia Open. 2019 Feb 28;4(2):328-333. doi:
10.1002/epi4.12312. eCollection 2019 Jun. PubMed PMID: 31168500; PubMed Central
PMCID: PMC6546012.

9: Gracia CG, Chagin K, Kattan MW, Ji X, Kattan MG, Crotty L, Najm I,
Gonzalez-Martinez J, Bingaman W, Jehi L. Predicting seizure freedom after
epilepsy surgery, a challenge in clinical practice. Epilepsy Behav. 2019
Jun;95:124-130. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.03.047. Epub 2019 Apr 28. PubMed PMID:
31035104; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6546523.

10: Wang S, Tang Y, Aung T, Chen C, Katagiri M, Jones SE, Prayson RA, Krishnan B,
Gonzalez-Martinez JA, Burgess RC, Najm IM, Alexopoulos AV, Wang S, Ding M, Wang
ZI. Multimodal noninvasive evaluation in MRI-negative operculoinsular epilepsy. J
Neurosurg. 2019 Apr 12:1-11. doi: 10.3171/2018.12.JNS182746. [Epub ahead of
print] PubMed PMID: 30978689.

11: Doherty C, Hogue O, Floden DP, Altemus JB, Najm IM, Eng C, Busch RM. BDNF and
COMT, but not APOE, alleles are associated with psychiatric symptoms in
refractory epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2019 May;94:131-136. doi:
10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.02.032. Epub 2019 Mar 22. PubMed PMID: 30909076.

12: Ying Z, Wang I, Blümcke I, Bulacio J, Alexopoulos A, Jehi L, Bingaman W,
Gonzalez-Martinez J, Kobow K, Niestroj LM, Lal D, Koelble K, Najm I. A
comprehensive clinico-pathological and genetic evaluation of bottom-of-sulcus
focal cortical dysplasia in patients with difficult-to-localize focal epilepsy.
Epileptic Disord. 2019 Feb 1;21(1):65-77. doi: 10.1684/epd.2019.1028. PubMed
PMID: 30782578.

13: McGovern RA, Ruggieri P, Bulacio J, Najm I, Bingaman WE, Gonzalez-Martinez
JA. Risk analysis of hemorrhage in stereo-electroencephalography procedures.
Epilepsia. 2019 Mar;60(3):571-580. doi: 10.1111/epi.14668. Epub 2019 Feb 12.
PubMed PMID: 30746685.

14: Wang W, Lin Y, Wang S, Jones S, Prayson R, Moosa ANV, McBride A,
Gonzalez-Martinez J, Bingaman W, Najm I, Alexopoulos A; Pediatric Imaging,
Neurocognition and Genetics Study, Wang ZI. Voxel-based morphometric magnetic
resonance imaging postprocessing in non-lesional pediatric epilepsy patients
using pediatric normal databases. Eur J Neurol. 2019 Jul;26(7):969-e71. doi:
10.1111/ene.13916. Epub 2019 Mar 12. PubMed PMID: 30685877.

15: Steriade C, Martins W, Bulacio J, Morita-Sherman ME, Nair D, Gupta A,
Bingaman W, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Najm I, Jehi L. Localization yield and seizure
outcome in patients undergoing bilateral SEEG exploration. Epilepsia. 2019
Jan;60(1):107-120. doi: 10.1111/epi.14624. Epub 2018 Dec 26. PubMed PMID:
30588603; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6510950.

16: Ma D, Jones SE, Deshmane A, Sakaie K, Pierre EY, Larvie M, McGivney D,
Blümcke I, Krishnan B, Lowe M, Gulani V, Najm I, Griswold MA, Wang ZI.
Development of high-resolution 3D MR fingerprinting for detection and
characterization of epileptic lesions. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2019
May;49(5):1333-1346. doi: 10.1002/jmri.26319. Epub 2018 Dec 23. PubMed PMID:
30582254.

Imad Michel Najm, MD, is Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute.

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