Microsphaeropsis arundinis: a coelomycetes and an emerging cause of human phaeohyphomycosis reported from Assam, India with review of the literature

Microsphaeropsis arundinis is an emerging cause of subcutaneous fungal infection among immunocompromised humans and cat. It is a dematiaceous fungus of class Coelomycetes, that inhabits plant host. Most of the cases from feline hosts and human immunocompromised hosts are reported from Australia [1]. We report a case of phaeohyphomycosis in a 28 year old female patient attending Dermatology OPD from Assam who is a known case of Systemic lupus Erythematosus since last 11 years on oral prednisolone therapy. Patient responded well to oral itraconazole therapy. Phenotypic identification of this dematiaceous fungus is challenging and molecular dentification was done with ITS sequencing.