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An ambulance brings a patient to the hospital with chest pains, shortness of breath, and nausea. Is it a panic attack? Or is it a heart attack? Diagnosing a myocardial infarction (heart attack) quickly is critical: heart attacks kill more than 600,000 people in the United States every year, but if a doctor can diagnose and begin treating a patient within the “golden hour” following a heart attack, the patient’s chances of survival and recovery improve substantially.

About every 25 seconds, someone in the U.S. will have a heart attack or stroke. Half will die as a result, or approximately 620,000 people every year. This means that heart disease accounts for about 25% of American deaths.

Because heart disease poses such a significant health threat, finding ways to predict who is likely to have a heart attack or stroke remains the subject of intense research.

Even though February is the month formally acknowledged as American Heart Month, it is a disease that is on the minds of many researchers at the ӳý every day.