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Steven M. Shapiro, M.D.
Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, Otolaryngology, Physical
Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Physiology
Dr. Steven Shapiro’s research
relates to a specific form of preventable brain damage that occurs
in newborn infants with
excessive jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia). The resultant brain
damage, kernicterus, occurs rarely and is largely preventable,
which is the reason 60 percent of newborns who are visibly yellow
(jaundiced) are followed closely by pediatricians. Kernicterus
is the extreme form of damage, causing auditory dysfunction or
deafness, a movement disorder called dystonic or athetoid cerebral
palsy, problems with eye movements, and abnormal formation of
the enamel of teeth. Shapiro has been NIH-funded for over 20
years to work with an animal model of kernicterus, investigating
specific localization, onset, reversibility and pathogenesis
of the damage, which can occur in the auditory nervous system.
Recently, he was awarded a second NIH grant to investigate the
neuroanatomical and physiological basis of the movement disorder
that occurs with kernicterus. He is on the medical board of Parents
of Infants and Children with Kernicterus (PICK), has helped plan
and served as consultant on multicenter clinical trials and as
a participant (with Dr. Linda Meloy), sees patients for clinical
and research purposes in a kernicterus clinic, and is planning
a multidisciplinary clinical research project involving pediatrics,
neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, otolaryngology,
physical/occupational/speech therapy, neuroradiology, and neurosurgery.
Shapiro is board certified in pediatrics, neurology with special
competence in child neurology, clinical neurophysiology and neurodevelopmental
disabilities.
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