sclerosis

/skləˈroʊsəs/

Someone is diagnosed with the condition sclerosis when a part of their body becomes unusually hardened. A diet that's too high in cholesterol can cause sclerosis of the arteries.

In many cases of sclerosis, the stiffening of tissue in organs, nerves, or arteries happens when it's gradually replaced with harder connective tissue. One of the most common forms of sclerosis is called multiple sclerosis, or MS. In this disorder, nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain are affected. Eventually patients with multiple sclerosis experience lack of coordination, numbness, and other symptoms. The Greek root is skleros, or "hard."

Definitions of sclerosis

1. noun

   any pathological hardening or thickening of tissue
   synonyms: induration

   types:

   MS, disseminated multiple sclerosis, disseminated sclerosis, multiple sclerosis

   a chronic progressive nervous disorder involving loss of myelin sheath around certain nerve fibers

   ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

   thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord; results in progressive muscle atrophy that starts in the limbs

   arteriolosclerosis

   sclerosis of the arterioles

   arterial sclerosis, arteriosclerosis, coronary-artery disease, hardening of the arteries, induration of the arteries

   sclerosis of the arterial walls

   osteosclerosis

   abnormal hardening or eburnation of bone

   atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease

   a stage of arteriosclerosis involving fatty deposits (atheromas) inside the arterial walls, thus narrowing the arteries

   arteriosclerosis obliterans

   a stage of arteriosclerosis involving closure of blood vessels

   type of:

   pathology

   any deviation from a healthy or normal condition