Nomazulu Dlamini

Director, Children’s Stroke Program 

Senior Associate Scientist, SickKids Research Institute

Chair positions

Chair, International Paediatric Stroke Study, Executive Committee 

Co-Chair, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Paediatric Best Practice Guidelines Working Group

Dr. Noma Dlamini worked as a Staff Neurologist at the Evelina Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, UK prior to returning to SickKids.  She is the Director of the Children’s Stroke Program.  She is pioneering an integrated clinical and multi-modal neuroimaging approach for the prediction of risk and outcome in children with stroke and cerebrovascular disorders.  She also provides international leadership in paediatric stroke through the International Paediatric Stroke Study and the International Paediatric Stroke Organization.

Research

Dr. Dlamini is passionate about understanding why children have stroke, why some children do well after they have a stroke, and why some do not.  She follows one of the largest populations of children with stroke in Canada and uses novel imaging of the brain to understand stroke risk and outcome in childhood.  Current work includes research into why some children with stroke have challenges with higher language functions such as socialization and humour, why some children develop a disabling movement disorder called dystonia, how to predict stroke risk in children with abnormalities of the brain blood vessels and how sleep affects stroke risk and outcome.

Education and experience

• 1990–1996: MBBS, Medicine and Surgery, University College of London, London, England
• 1996–2000: House Officer/Senior House Officer, Pediatrics, University College London Hospitals and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, England
• 2000: MRCPCH (UK), Pediatrics, Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, London, England
• 2001: Fellow, Pediatric Intensive Care, Guys and St. Thomas’ Hospital London, England
• 2001–2004, Specialist Registrar, Pediatrics, London Deanery, England
• 2004: Fellow, Neuromuscular, Dubowitz Neuromuscular Unit, Dubowitz Neuromuscular Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, London, England
• 2002–2004: M.Sc., Clinical Pediatrics, University College of London, London, England
• 2005–2008: Specialist Trainee, Pediatric Neurology, King’s College Hospital and Evelina Children’s/Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust, London, England
• 2008–2010, Fellow, Pediatric Stroke, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario
• 2017: PhD, Neurosciences, University College of London, London, England

Achievements

• Member, International Paediatric Stroke Organization (IPSO) Charter Working Group
• Chair, International Paediatric Stroke Study Executive Committee
• Co-Chair, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Paediatric Best Practice Guidelines
• Co-Founder, IPSO
• Scientific Director, International Paediatric Stroke Study
• Co-Director, Stroke Imaging Lab for Children
• 2018: Winner of Platform Presentation Award at International Child Neurology Congress
• 2010: Young Investigator’s Award Neurobiology of Disease in Childhood
• 2010: Jon Stobo Pritchard Prize for Research, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
• 2009: Research Fellowship Heart and Stroke Foundation/Canadian Institute Health Research
• 2008: Science Award, Vasculopathy in Sickle Cell Disease NIH Bethesda, Maryland
• 2008: Travel Award, Vasculopathy in Sickle Cell Disease NIH Bethesda, Maryland

1. Dlamini N, Pohl K, Eley B, Van Toorn R, Kilborn T, Padayachee S,Pontigon AM, Kirkham FJ, Wilmshurst J. Stroke transcranial Doppler in children with human immunodeficiency virus. Dev Med Child Neurol.  2020 Jun;62(6):735-741.
2. Ledochowski J*, Dlamini N, Desrocher M, Westmacott R, Williams T. Mental Health Outcomes in Children with Acquired Dystonia after Basal Ganglia Stroke and Associations with Cognitive and Motor Outcomes. Child Neuropsychology, 2020 January 30:1-20.
3. Dlamini N, Slim M*, Kirkham F, Shroff M, Dirks P, Moharir M, MacGregor DL, Robertson A, deVeber G, Logan W. Predicting Ischemic Risk using Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) MRI in Children with Moyamoya. American Journal of Neuroradiology 2020 January; 41(1):160-166. 2019.
4. Slim M*, Westmacott R, Toutounji S, Singh J, Narang I, Weiss S, Krishnan P, Grbac E, Surmava AM, Andres K, MacGregor DL, deVeber G, Moharir M, Dlamini N. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and neuropsychological function in pediatric stroke. European Journal of Paediatric Neurology, November 2019; pii: S1090-3798(19)30415-5.
5. Dlamini N, Yau I, Muthusami P, Mikulis D, Elbers J, Slim M, Askalan R, MacGregor D, deVeber G, Shroff M, Moharir M. Arterial Wall Imaging in Pediatric Stroke. Stroke 2018: 49 (4): pp 891-898.

Funding

• Auxilium Foundation Grant - Canadian Pediatric Ischemic Stroke
• SickKids Stroke Registry: Risk Factors, Treatments and Outcomes
• Banting Research Foundation Discovery Award
  Project Title: Neural Network Reorganization and Maladaptive Plasticity in Dystonia Post Childhood Basal Ganglia Stroke:  A Developmental Model for the Investigation of the Neurobiological Substrate of Dystonia
• Brain Canada: Canadian Paediatric Stroke Imaging Platform