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Objectives: To validate and recalibrate the CURB-65 and pneumonia severity index (PSI) in predicting 30-day mortality and critical care intervention (CCI) in a multiethnic population with COVID-19, along with evaluating both models in predicting CCI. Methods: Retrospective data was collected for 1181 patients admitted to the largest hospital in Qatar with COVID-19 pneumonia. The area under the curve (AUC), calibration curves, and other metrics were bootstrapped to examine the performance of the models. Variables constituting the CURB-65 and PSI scores underwent further analysis using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) along with logistic regression to develop a model predicting CCI. Complex machine learning models were built for comparative analysis. Results: The PSI performed better than CURB-65 in predicting 30-day mortality (AUC 0.83, 0.78 respectively), while CURB-65 outperformed PSI in predicting CCI (AUC 0.78, 0.70 respectively). The modified PSI/CURB-65 model (respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, hematocrit, age, sodium, and glucose) predicting CCI had excellent accuracy (AUC 0.823) and good calibration. Conclusions: Our study recalibrated, externally validated the PSI and CURB-65 for predicting 30-day mortality and CCI, and developed a model for predicting CCI. Our tool can potentially guide clinicians in Qatar to stratify patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Background: Dry eye syndrome is a broad clinical term that is used to describe a variety of ocular conditions that are characterized by ocular irritation and discomfort secondary to decreased tear production or increased tear evaporation. It is highly prevalent, with almost 1/3 of ophthalmic patients presenting with DES-related symptoms. Many risk factors were linked to the development of DES, including occupation-related risk factors. Aims and Objectives: This study was a cross-sectional study aimed at identifying the association between dry eye syndrome and various occupational categories to determine the occupation-specific risk factors in patients attending the corneal outpatient clinics of Khartoum Eye Teaching Hospital. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from all patients aging 25-50 years who presented with DES-related symptoms and had a positive Schirmer's test. A questionnaire was used in the data collection process. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20. Results: Among the 450 participants, 279 were females (62%). About 140 patients were white-collar workers (31.1%), 134 were blue-collar workers (67 skilled and 67 unskilled; constituting 29.8%), 112 were green-collar workers (24.9%) and the remaining 64 patients were unemployed. (14.2%) An increased risk (in comparison to the unemployed group) was observed for the white-collar (highest risk), blue-collar and green-collar (lowest risk) categories. (P-value