For this week's cover story on heart disease, TIME reporters visited medical centers around the U.S. to stake out the nation's No. 1 killer. Many were soon experiencing palpitations and sweaty palms. The diagnosis: anxiety over their own heart-wrecking habits. Says Midwest Correspondent Patricia Delaney: "I felt dull chest pains when cardiologists vividly described the symptoms of a heart attack, and afterward I sadly declined wine and butter at lunch. I even got an electrocardiogram, and I began to exercise more." After visiting a hypertension clinic in Manhattan and a diagnostic center on Long Island, Correspondent Mary Cronin persuaded a reluctant relative to undergo a battery of tests. Says Cronin: "She got a clean bill of health and told me to be my own guinea pig next time." Jacqueline Schmeal interviewed surgeons at the University of Texas and Texas Heart Institute and came away marveling at their dedication. Says she: "One doctor I talked to works 18-hour days, then eats and sleeps right inside the hospital." In San Francisco, Dick Thompson watched a triple bypass operation being performed on a longshoreman. His conclusion: "In surgery, the heart seemed no more mysterious than a clock. But later, when I saw the man's family in the waiting room, I remembered that a collection of those little machines--liver, heart, brain and the rest--work together and somehow produce laughter and love. To me, that's the greatest mystery."

As a TIME medicine writer since 1978, Anastasia Toufexis has worked on a number of heart-related stories, including the debates over coronary bypass surgery and the role of cholesterol in heart attacks. For this week's cover she went to the University of Utah to learn about the artificial heart being developed there. Says Toufexis: "Most people aren't aware of the advances that cardiovascular science has made in the past few years. If you add up all the bits and pieces, it's startling." Reporter-Researcher Melissa Ludtke Lincoln probably spoke for most TIME readers when she observed: "The breakthroughs cannot come fast enough. As possible future heart patients, we need all the help we can get."

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