{"id":4753,"date":"2016-07-21T11:01:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T16:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/?p=4753"},"modified":"2016-07-26T11:59:28","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T16:59:28","slug":"4753","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/2016\/07\/21\/4753\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Ahmad studies oxidative stress levels among radiologic technologists"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kalani Simpson for UNMC Discover (Spring 2016)<\/em><\/p>\n

Before she earned her Ph.D., and before she came to UNMC as an assistant professor in the College of Allied Health Professions, Dr. Iman Ahmad worked for about 10 years as a radiologic technologist. It was demanding work, made more so by the work ethic she shared with many radiologic techs \u2013 she put the patient before herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was young and crazy and wanted to work hard,\u201d Dr. Ahmad recalled. It never occurred to her how much radiation she, herself, might be taking on. She admits that she did not always follow best practices \u2013 for example, she would hold a child patient, in order to make the radiographic position go better, putting herself within the primary beam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI forgot about myself,\u201d Dr. Ahmad said. And research shows that despite their own workplace rules, educations and better judgment, some radiologic techs do the same.<\/p>\n

But now Dr. Ahmad is an educator and researcher. Her specialty is measuring redox status \u2013 that is, the increase or decrease, within our bodies, of oxidative stress. It\u2019s a sought-after skill, and she is grateful to collaborate on a handful of research projects across campus.<\/p>\n

But one close to her heart is a pilot study analyzing the redox status of those who serve in her old job \u2013 radiologic techs.<\/p>\n

They remain dedicated to their patients. But Dr. Ahmad wants to help ensure the safety of those who are \u201coccupationally exposed\u201d to radiation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not scaring them,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is about awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even those who follow best practices to the letter, if they work double shifts and don\u2019t take vacations, may be exposed to too much radiation. \u201cThose doses will accumulate in your body,\u201d Dr. Ahmad said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ahmad looks at whether the techs\u2019 redox levels are able to remain in balance, or tip too far into oxidative stress.<\/p>\n

A number of factors may come into play, and a follow-up study will delve into whether lifestyle and work habits make a difference, study how DNA damage is sustained and how other biomarkers can be identified.<\/p>\n

Her pilot study, with a small number of Nebraska Medicine volunteers as subjects, found evidence that exposure to radiation within limits recommended by the International Commission of Radiation Protection (ICRP) in procedures with higher doses of radiation \u2013 CT scans and Interventional Radiography (IR), for example \u2013 have an altered circulating redox status as compared to conventional radiography and unexposed individuals.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ahmad stresses that the low doses of radiation to which radiologic techs are exposed to is generally not high enough to cause direct damage but the concern is their long term effects, which are more worrisome as they include cancer and genetic risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take it one step back,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we do what we have to keep our redox levels in balance, we will be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kalani Simpson for UNMC Discover (Spring 2016) Before she earned her Ph.D., and before she came to UNMC as an assistant professor in the College of Allied Health Professions, Dr. Iman Ahmad worked for about 10 years as a radiologic technologist. It was demanding work, made more so by the work ethic she shared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":4754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,46,7,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frontpage","category-health","category-kudos","category-research-2","category-rste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4753"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4765,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions\/4765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/alliedhealth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}