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Background: Isolated splenic abscesses are rare, but increasingly reported with newer organisms and changes in mechanisms involved. We conducted a comparative review of publications from 1900–1977, 1977–1986, 1987–1995, and 1996–2022. Methods: A systematic search in Embase and PubMed resulted in 522 publications (1111 cases). Data was tabulated, analysed, and compared. Results: Patient demographics and symptoms remain unchanged although more Asian patients were reported. Metastatic infections remain the main cause, but COVID‐19‐linked and iatrogenic causes post bariatric surgery and splenic artery embolization are increasingly reported. Aerobic organisms remain the commonest (68%), with a variety of exotic organisms reported. Splenectomy remains the definitive treatment, although antibiotics only and percutaneous aspiration/catheter‐drainage are increasingly used with reasonable outcomes, with salvage splenectomy for therapeutic failures not having significantly higher mortality than upfront splenectomy. Conclusions: Isolated splenic abscesses continue to be uncommon, with diagnosis requiring a high degree of suspicion. Non‐surgical options for treatment can sometimes be definitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poem "Ouroboros" by Daniel Ooi is presented. First Line: Dear American Dream, Last Line: and alien—.

We describe a new synthetic lethality analysis by microarray (SLAM) technique that uses ~4,600 Saccharomyces cerevisiae haploid deletion mutants with molecular 'bar codes' (TAGs). We used SGS1 and SRS2, two 3'?5' DNA helicase genes, as 'queries' to identify their redundant and unique biological functions. We introduced these 'query mutations' into a haploid deletion pool by integrative transformation to disrupt the query gene in every cell, generating a double mutant pool. Optimization of integrative transformation efficiency was essential to the success of SLAM. Synthetic interactions defined a DNA helicase genetic network and predicted a role for SRS2 in processing damaged replication forks but, unlike SGS1, not in rDNA replication, DNA topology or lagging strand synthesis. SGS1 and SRS2 have synthetic defects with MRC1 but not RAD9, suggesting that SGS1 and SRS2 function in a parallel pathway with MRC1 to transduce the DNA replication stress signal to the general DNA damage checkpoint pathway. Both helicase genes have rad51-reversible synthetic defects with 5'?3' DNA helicase RRM3, suggesting that RRM3 helps prevent formation of toxic recombination intermediates. SLAM detects synthetic lethality efficiently and ranks candidate genetic interactions, making it an especially useful method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]