Each year more than 1.2 million Americans suffer a heart attack. In a third of these individuals, the damage results in heart failure, a progressive condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s oxygen needs. Half of these 400,000 survivors will die within five years. A blood test to diagnose which heart attack survivors will suffer heart failure is the goal of a new five-year, $11.6 million contract to the UT Health Science Center San Antonio from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). “We will study protein fragments that are released into the bloodstream following heart attacks to identify patients who need more intensive treatment,” said Merry L. Lindsey, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine and principal investigator of the NHLBI Proteomics Center.