Washington University School of Medicine

Morvarid Karimi, MD

Dr. Karimi is a board certified neurologist with fellowship training in Movement Disorders. Her clinical interests focus on patients with involuntary movements and balance problems in disorders such as parkinsonisms, dystonia, Huntington disease, Tourette syndrome, normal pressure hydrocephalus and ataxias. Her clinical expertise further includes botulinum toxin injection for treatment of sialorrhea, dystonia and spasticity.

Her research focus follows her clinical interest. She has been awarded a K23 NIH grant to utilize PET imaging and fMRI for better understanding of the role of dopamine receptors an endogenous dopamine in pathology of focal dystonias.  Another major aspect of her effort focuses on investigating the mechanism of action in DBS (deep brain stimulation) in Parkinson disease and dystonia using PET imaging. She also collaborates in a project to identify and validate appropriate imaging biomarkers for measuring the progression in Parkinson disease.

Medical Training

Medical Degree: Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet (WWU), Muenster, Germany, 1999
Residency: Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 2003
Fellowship: Movement Disorders, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, 2007

Selected Publications

Karimi M, Razavi, M, Fattal, D: Rubral lateropulsion due to vertebral artery dissection in a patient with Klippel-Feil syndrome. Arch Neurol 61(4):583-5, 2004.

Karimi M, Carl JL, Loftin S, Perlmutter JS: Modified high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection method for plasma measurement of levodopa, 3-O-methyldopa, dopamine, carbidopa and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl acetic acid. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2006 May 19;836(1-2):120-3. Epub 2006 Apr 11.

Weiss EM, Hershey T, Karimi M, Racette B, Tabbal SD, Mink JW, Paniello RC, Perlmutter JS: Relative risk of spread of symptoms among the focal onset primary dystonias. Mov Disord. 2006 Aug;21(8):1175-81.

Hershey T, Wu J, Weaver PM, Perantie DC, Karimi M, Tabbal SD, Perlmutter JS :Unilateral vs. bilateral STN DBS effects on working memory and motor function in Parkinson disease. Exp Neurol. 2007 Nov 29; [Epub ahead of print]

Videen TO, Campbell MC, Tabbal SD, Karimi M, Hershey T, Perlmutter JS:Validation of a fiducial-based atlas localization method for deep brain stimulation contacts in the area of the subthalamic nucleus. J Neurosci Methods. 2007 Oct 23; [Epub ahead of print]

Tabbal SD, Ushe M, Mink JW, Revilla FJ, Wernle AR, Hong M, Karimi M, Perlmutter JS:Unilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation has a measurable ipsilateral effect on rigidity and bradykinesia in Parkinson disease. Exp Neurol. 2008 Feb 14; [Epub ahead of print]

Campbell MC, Karimi M, Weaver PM, Wu J, Perantie DC, Golchin NA, Tabbal SD, Perlmutter JS, Hershey T. Neural correlates of STN DBS-induced cognitive variability in Parkinson disease. Neuropsychologia. 2008 Nov;46(13):3162-9. Epub 2008 Jul 19

Karimi M, Golchin N, Tabbal S, Hershey T, Videen TO, Wu J, Mink JW, Perlmutter JS: Subthalamic nucleus stimulation-induced regional blood flow responses correlate with improvement of motor signs in Parkinson disease.  Brain. 2008 Oct;131(Pt 10):2710-9

Xiao J, Bastian RW, Perlmutter JS, Racette BA, Tabbal SD, Karimi M, Paniello RC, Blitzer A, Batish SD, Wszolek ZK, Uitti RJ, Hedera P, Simon DK, Tarsy D, Truong DD, Frei KP, Pfeiffer RF, Gong S, Zhao Y, LeDoux MS. High-throughput mutational analysis of TOR1A in primary dystonia. BMC Med Genet. 2009 Mar 11;10:24

Xiao J, Zhao Y, Bastian RW, Perlmutter JS, Racette BA, Tabbal SD, Karimi M, Paniello RC, Wszolek ZK, Uitti RJ, Van Gerpen JA, Simon DK, Tarsy D, Hedera P, Truong DD, Frei KP, Dev Batish S, Blitzer A, Pfeiffer RF, Gong S, LeDoux MS. Novel THAP1 sequence variants in primary dystonia. Neurology. 2010 Jan 19;74(3):229-38

Hershey T, Campbell MC, Videen TO, Lugar HM, Weaver PM, Hartlein J, Karimi M, Tabbal SD, Perlmutter JS. Mapping Go-No-Go performance within the subthalamic nucleus region. Brain. 2010 Dec; 133(Pt 12):3625-34. Epub 2010 Sep 20.

Karimi M, Moerlein SM, Videen TO, Luedtke RR, Taylor M, Mach RH, Perlmutter JS. Decreased striatal dopamine receptor binding in primary focal dystonia: A D2 or D3 defect? Mov Disord. 2010 Oct 19.

Xiao J, Zhao Y, Bastian RW, Perlmutter JS, Racette BA, Tabbal SD, Karimi M, Paniello RC, Wszolek ZK, Uitti RJ, Van Gerpen JA, Simon DK, Tarsy D, Hedera P, Truong DD, Frei KP, Blitzer A, Rudzińska M, Pfeiffer RF, Le C, Ledoux MS. The c.-237_236GA>TT THAP1 sequence variant does not increase risk for primary dystonia. Mov Disord. 2011 Feb 15;26(3):549-53. doi: 10.1002/mds.23551. Epub 2011 Mar 2

McNeely ME, Hershey T, Campbell MC, Tabbal SD, Karimi M, Hartlein JM, Lugar HM, Revilla FJ, Perlmutter JS, Earhart GM. Effects of deep brain stimulation of dorsal versus ventral subthalamic nucleus regions on gait and balance in Parkinson's disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2011 Apr 8.

Decreased striatal dopamine receptor binding in primary focal dystonia: a D2 or D3 defect? Karimi M, Moerlein SM, Videen TO, Luedtke RR, Taylor M, Mach RH, Perlmutter JS. Mov Disord. 2011 Jan;26(1):100-6.

Karimi M, Perlmutter JS. MRI measures predict progressive supranuclear palsy: clinically useful? Neurology. 2011 Sep 13;77(11):1028-9. Epub 2011 Aug 10.

Tian L, Karimi M, Loftin SK, Brown CA, Xia H, Xu J, Mach RH, Perlmutter JS. No Differential Regulation of Dopamine Transporter (DAT) and Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 (VMAT2) Binding in a Primate Model of Parkinson Disease. PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31439. Epub 2012 Feb 16.