Washington, March 12 : Health problems like smoking or weight gain may sometimes persist because they preserve stability in a vital close relationship, according to a new study.

Michael J. Rohrbaugh and Varda Shoham, of the University of Arizona, say that close relationships can perpetuate individual health problems because one person's behaviour can set the stage for what another does.

Washington, Mar 11 : Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have identified a handful of proteins in incredibly tiny amounts that may one day help doctors distinguish between a harmless lesion in the pancreas and a potentially deadly one.

According to the researchers, these protein biomarkers, if confirmed in subsequent studies, could represent reliable indicators of pancreatic cancer or precancerous pancreatic lesions, which would allow for earlier, perhaps more successful, treatment.

Washington, Mar 11 : Researchers from Hasbro Children''s Hospital and Children''s Hospital Boston have identified risk factors for the severity of asymmetrical head shapes, known as deformational plagiocephaly (DP), or more commonly as flat head syndrome.

Many researchers have published reports of risk factors for the development of DP, which include supine positioning, firstborn infants, prematurity, developmental delay and others.

Washington, Mar 11 : The use of common and readily available screening test called the ankle brachial index (ABI) could spot people with otherwise unsuspected heart risks, a new research has shown.

Washington, Mar 11 : The side effects of medications given to breast cancer patients during chemotherapy occur because drugs released into the body target healthy cells as well as tumour cells. Now, Brown University researchers have developed a new way to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to the tumour cells.

They have created a twin nanoparticle that specifically targets the Her-2-positive tumour cell, a type of malignant cell that affects up to 30 percent of breast cancer patients.

Washington, Mar 11 : Women who suffer from asthma during pregnancy are at a greater risk of giving birth prematurely if they suspend their asthma treatments, according to a new study.

The Université de Montréal study, published in Respiratory Medicine, showed that the probability of suffering from hypertension during pregnancy also increases for women who interrupt their asthma treatment.