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Mycosis of the Plantar Surface of Foot Owing to Nondermatophyte Mold Nodulisporium griseobrunneum Mimicking a Tinea Pedis

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Abstract

Nondermatophyte molds (NDM) and dematiaceous molds are less frequently implicated as the etiological agents of tinea-like infections of the foot. Among the etiological agents, Hendersonula toruloidea (now, Nattrassia mangiferae), Scytalidium hyalinum, Alternaria species (spp.), and Fusarium spp. are infrequently associated with foot mycoses. Nodulisporium (N.) spp. is a mitosporic NDM, which has been implicated in human infections like cerebral phaeohyphomycosis and allergic fungal sinusitis. Here, we report N. griseobrunneum in a 9-year-old female with mycosis of the plantar surface of foot mimicking a tinea pedis. Potassium hydroxide mount of skin specimen demonstrated dichotomous branching septate hyphae. Fungal culture and molecular sequencing established N. griseobrunneum as the etiological agent. Antifungal susceptibility testing revealed lower MICs to all seven drugs tested including itraconazole (ITR). The patient was treated with ITR and topical terbinafine. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first communication depicting molecular confirmation of the etiologic agent and antifungal susceptibility data of the mycosis of the plantar surface of foot owing to N. griseobrunneum from India.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Prof. Dr. Arunaloke Chakrabarti and Mrs. Sunita Gupta from NCCPF, Mycology Division, Department of Medical Microbiology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India, for accepting the request for performing the ITS sequence and AFST using the reference method. The authors also wish to acknowledge Dr. P. R. Anuradha, Professor and HOD of Microbiology and Dr. S. Madhavi, Professor of Microbiology, and Residents of Dermatology department, Bhaskar Medical College and General Hospital, for their consistent support in improving mycological investigations.

Funding

The authors received no specific grant from any funding agency.

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Author notes

  1. Sivarami Reddy Karumuri and Sri Shilpa Poojari contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mycology Division, Department of Microbiology, Bhaskar Medical College and General Hospital, Bhaskar Nagar, Yenkapally, Moinabad, R.R. District, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500 075, India

    Hari Pankaj Vanam

  2. Department of Dermatology (DVL), Bhaskar Medical College and General Hospital, Bhaskar Nagar, Yenkapally, Moinabad, R.R. District, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500 075, India

    Sivarami Reddy Karumuri

  3. Oliva Skin and Hair Clinics, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500 081, India

    Sri Shilpa Poojari

  4. Department of Medical Microbiology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, 160012, India

    Shivaprakash Mandya Rudramurthy

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  1. Hari Pankaj Vanam
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  4. Shivaprakash Mandya Rudramurthy
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All authors confirm in accord with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria. Each author made a substantial contribution to the conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data. Each of the authors participated in the drafting of the article are revising it critically for important intellectual content and have read before the approval of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hari Pankaj Vanam.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest pertaining to present study.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval was obtained by the institutional Ethical committee of Bhaskar Medical College and General Hospital for Cutaneous mycoses participants.

Humans and Animal Rights

Procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation within their institutions and/or with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. “This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.”

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Written informed consent for participation and publication was obtained from the patient’s guardian.

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Handling Editor: Yuping Ran.

Repository: ITS Sequence GenBank Accession number: MH507249.1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MH507249.

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Vanam, H.P., Karumuri, S.R., Poojari, S.S. et al. Mycosis of the Plantar Surface of Foot Owing to Nondermatophyte Mold Nodulisporium griseobrunneum Mimicking a Tinea Pedis. Mycopathologia 185, 1033–1040 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-020-00483-4

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