1. Wprowadzenie. 2. Pozycja taksonomiczna. 3. Morfologia. 4. Występowanie. 5. Znaczenie w medycynie człowieka. 5.1. Grzybice skóry i paznokci. 5.2. Inne postacie zakażeń. 6. Diagnostyka zakażeń. 7. Wrażliwość na leki przeciwgrzybicze. 8. Leczenie. 9. Podsumowanie. 10. Piśmiennictwo

Abstract: The genus Scopulariopsis accommodates more than 30 species of mitosporic moulds. Their natural habitat is the soil, where they live as saprophytes and are involved in the decomposition of organic matter. However, some members of the Scopulariopsis genus may cause opportunistic infections in humans. Superficial skin lesions and onychomycosis in particular are the most predominant clinical manifestations. Much rarer are subcutaneous, deep tissue and disseminated infections, most of which occur in immunocompromised individuals and are associated with high mortality. Treatment of Scopulariopsis infections is difficult and usually empirically-based, one reason for this being resistance of Scopulariopsis spp. to a broad spectrum of antifungal agents. Identification of pathogenic Scopulariopsis spp. still largely relies on the phenotype-based methods, employing both morphological and biochemical criteria. These methods require highly qualified personnel and are usually considered as slow and laborious, often leading to misidentification. Therefore, molecular diagnostic methods are preferred, since they provide rapid, high-throughout, unambiguous and highly specific identification of fungal pathogens. Earlier attempts to develop assays for detecting Scopulariopsis spp. resulted in limited success. These assays, almost exclusively based on the hypervariable regions of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA, often produce inconclusive results and, more importantly, lack specificity, being unable to discriminate between different Scopulariopsis spp. Hence, currently available molecular methods do not allow inter- and intra-species differentiation of Scopulariopsis fungi.

1. Introduction. 2. Taxonomic position. 3. Morphology. 4. Distribution. 5. Significance in human medicine. 5.1. Skin and nail mycoses. 5.2. Other forms of infections. 6. Diagnosis of infections. 7. Antifungal susceptibility. 8. Treatment. 9. Summary. 10. References