Growing up the son of a Greek immigrant pediatrician, Chicago cardiologist Stavros Maragos knew early on that his heart belonged to medicine.  Years later, Maragos would discover that his medicine was taking care of others’ hearts. 

He was inspired working summers at his father’s multi-specialty medical office, watching him care for young patients.  And, he was significantly influenced by a friend’s father who was a cardiologist.   “I was moved by the way he was able to relieve the symptoms of so many patients,” Maragos explains.  “I was also fascinated by his old EKG machine, which in those days, was very cutting-edge.”

After graduating from Brown University, Maragos went on to attend medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.  His residency at the University of Chicago was followed by a cardiology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, where he was named Chief Cardiology Fellow.

Today, as a cardiologist at MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, renowned for its cardiac care, he diagnoses and treats patients using state-of-the-art technologies.  He also spends much of his time educating patients about heart disease prevention.

“When talking with patients, I emphasize the importance of lifestyle changes in order to maintain the health of one’s heart and vascular system,” he says.  “By getting regular exercise, controlling blood sugar, lowering cholesterol and quitting smoking, people can significantly reduce their lifetime risk of developing heart disease.” 

Since starting his practice in the southwest suburbs more than 12 years ago, Maragos has noticed a gradual decline in the progression of heart and vascular disease.  Patients who once seemed destined to suffer repeated cardiac problems can now often stabilize their disease with the help of effective medications, appropriate cardiac procedures, and essential lifestyle changes. While control of cardiac risk factors no doubt improves one’s quality of life, heart disease stubbornly remains the #1 killer of both men and women nationally.

Maragos has noticed cultural difference in patients.  “In general, Greeks eat healthier foods and walk everywhere, but they are big smokers,” he observes.  “American society is anti-smoking, but struggles from an epidemic of obesity and lack of exercise.” 

While both sexes suffer from heart disease, Maragos believes that many women do not seek help and therefore are not diagnosed until it is too late.  Statistically, women undergo fewer open heart surgeries, coronary artery stents and implantation of cardiac defibrillators.  He suspects that this may not reflect a better state of health, but rather a tendency for women to under-recognize cardiac symptoms, which in turn leads to missing out on potentially life-saving therapies. He explains that warning signs for heart disease in women often vary from those in men and that physicians and patients must be more alert to these differences.

In treating a wide variety of patients on the heart disease spectrum, Maragos has developed an expertise in several areas of cardiology, including congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease and preventative cardiology, which is the modification of cardio-vascular risk factors. 

At MetroSouth Medical Center, formerly known as St. Francis Hospital, Maragos has access to the latest technology available to effectively treat these and other cardiovascular conditions.  Maragos and his partners at Heart Care Centers of Illinois have extensive experience in the use of catheter-based treatments for coronary artery disease and stents to treat carotid artery stenosis. He is skilled at using intra-cardiac imaging techniques to help close cardiac defects, such as patent foramen ovales (a defect in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart) and atrial septal defects (a hole in the wall between the heart’s two uppermost chambers) using a minimally-invasive  technique via a leg artery.  He is a strong supporter of cardiac CT angiography, which provides superb images of the heart’s coronary arteries in a non-invasive, outpatient setting. 

Maragos, whose family attends Annunciation Cathedral in Chicago, lives in the city with his wife Cynthia and their new son George.  For more information on Dr. Maragos, visit www.metrosouthmedicalcenter.com, or www.heartcc.com/maragos.htm.