Basketball Star Alonzo Mourning Reacts to Kidney Disease Diagnosis



Video: Alonzo Mourning Reacts to Kidney Disease Diagnosis

"Professional basketball player Alonzo Mourning remembers when he was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening kidney disease.

The diagnosis of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis came in 2000, a moment when Mourning felt "invincible" and "on top of the world."


A glomerulus is a capillary tuft surrounded by Bowman's capsule in nephrons of the vertebrate kidney. Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

The individual components of the name "focal segmental glomerulosclerosis" refer to the appearance of the kidney tissue on biopsy: focal - only some of the glomeruli are involved (as opposed to diffuse), segmental - only part of an entire glomerulus is involved (as opposed to global), glomerulosclerosis - refers to scarring of the glomerulus (a part of the nephron (the functional unit of the kidney).

Alonzo Mourning underwent a successful kidney transplantation in 2003 and contributed to the The Miami Heat win of the 2006 NBA Championship.

References:
Alonzo Mourning, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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