NIH awards $888,000 grant to NMSU researchers studying heart attacks Carlos Andres López LAS CRUCES - Every year, an estimated 805,000 Americans have a heart attack – that’s one every 40 seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But not all heart attacks are the same, and the development of better treatment approaches requires understanding the distinction between heart attacks that result from blood clots after a plaque rupture and those that do not. Research now underway at New Mexico State University seeks to advance the understanding of what causes heart attacks and differentiate between heart attack types at a molecular level.