With all due respect to the many opinions stated, there is no telling what could have caused the rupture of Dim's aortic valve. To pinpoint it on steroids is assuming a bit too much at this point. Could the steroids have caused his cardiac muscle to possibly grow too large to the point that his right ventricle ended up pumping out blood too forcefully, which would have then caused his aortic valve to malfunction (a'la rupture)? Maybe, but moreover this type of accidents occur more often due to blunt trauma via automobile accidents, surgical mishaps and sometimes even congenital heart defects. I think that before we all assume that steroids was the cause, we wait and see what actually might have caused this in Dim's particular case.
Also, let us understand that a heart attack and a stroke are by far two very different things. Whereas a stroke deals only with the brain and occurs when there is an obstruction of blood to the brain which then leads to a lack of tissue oxygenation, a heart attack has nothing to do with the brain and only deals with coronary arteries mainly, where due to an obstruction caused by either a thrombus (clot) or even cholesterol build up, the coronary arteries aren't able to provide the surrounding heart muscle with that much needed oxygen-rich blood, causing tissue ischemia, which is what causes the pain associated with a heart attack. Although both deal with the lack of blood reaching the respectable organs or tissues, one has nothing to do with the other necessarily. The only time when a heart attack can precede a stroke is when there is the case of an embolic stroke. With an embolic stroke originating at the heart, what you have is a clot that might have caused an obstruction at the coronary arteries, which could have lead to a heart attack "MI" and once it becomes dislodged (The clot) can then travel to the brain and cause a subsequent stroke to occur by furthermore causing more obstruction of blood to certain areas of the brain.
Now, there has not been any mention of a clot in Dim's scenario, so for now, all these talks of both occuring are at most speculation. Also, the only way that I personally see a rupture valve causing a heart attack or even stroke, is if the ruptured valve did not allow the right ventricle to pump blood out through the aorta which would have then subsequently caused pulmonary edema and then lead to left and right heart failure if untreated. So, only the lack of a large amount of blood pumping out through the aorta is one way in which the brain could have suffered from a stroke and the heart from a myocardial infarction, but that would have taken a few hours..
Dr. Goatboy, a few thoughts if you will..
Can he suffer from post-op complications? Absolutely, they happen more often than not....
Should he forget about bodybuilding? Yes.
1. The left ventricle (not the right) pumps blood out through the aorta.
2. As I said in a previous post, "valvular rupture" can mean a lot of things, especially when it is a layperson using the term. From what I've read in the posts here, it sounds like Dim may have developed acute valvular insufficiency which could result from true valve destruction/rupture (say from bacteria growing on the valve itself--which, by the way, is also possible here since Dim injects, and injection drug use is a risk factor for acute bacterial endocarditis) or from infarction of the muscles that normally maintain the integrity of the valve (M.I.s CAN can lead to acute valve malfunction due to papillary muscle rupture). You mention that hypertropy or dilatation of the heart can also cause valvular insufficiency; this is also true, although this is usually a chronic process.
3. Dim is likely being cared for in an ICU, and yes, there are many potential post-op complications--some related to the heart (arrythmias, cardiogenic shock, reinfarction, etc.) and others unrelated to the heart (pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, wound infection, etc.)
4. Stroke is a potential complication of cardiac surgery itself. The risk of stroke post-cardiac surgery is in the 4-5% range from studies I have seen.
