Sleep pattern in the dromedary camel: a behavioral and polysomnography study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To investigate sleep patterns in the camel by combining behavioral and polysomnography (PSG) methods. METHODS: A noninvasive PSG study was conducted over four nights on four animals. Additionally, video recordings were used to monitor the sleep behaviors associated with different vigilance states. RESULTS: During the night, short periods of sporadic sleep-like behavior corresponding to a specific posture, sternal recumbency (SR) with the head lying down on the ground, were observed. The PSG results showed rapid shifts between five vigilance states, including wakefulness, drowsiness, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non-REM (NREM) sleep, and rumination. The camels typically slept only 1.7 hours per night, subdivided into 0.5 hours of REM sleep and 1.2 hours of NREM sleep. Camels spent most of the night being awake (2.3 hours), ruminating (2.4 hours), or drowsing (1.9 hours). Various combinations of transitions between the different vigilance states were observed, with a notable transition into REM sleep directly from drowsiness (9%) or wakefulness (4%). Behavioral postures were found to correlate with PSG vigilance states, thereby allowing a reliable prediction of the sleep stage based on SR and the head position (erected, motionless, or lying down on the ground). Notably, 100% of REM sleep occurred during the Head Lying Down-SR posture. CONCLUSIONS: The camel is a diurnal species with a polyphasic sleep pattern at night. The best correlation between PSG and ethogram data indicates that sleep duration can be predicted by the behavioral method, provided that drowsiness is considered a part of sleep.

Mycophenolate mofetil associated with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy with successful outcome.

The use of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is known to be associated with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). We report a case of PML in a patient receiving MMF, who showed improvement upon discontinuation of the drug. He was restarted on MMF, following which he went into coma. He showed prompt recovery upon stopping the drug again and made full recovery without any residual neurological deficit. This case is being reported to further highlight this neurological side-effect of MMF.