Table 3:

Pearson correlation of relative metabolite abundances for a specific handling condition compared to the “gold standard” condition of no-preservative, no refrigeration storage, and no freeze-thaw cycles.

Comparison	Median	IQR	20th Percentile (262)	15th Percentile (157)	10th Percentile (105)	5th Percentile (52)
Preservative
Borate	0.98	(0.98–0.99)	0.88	0.83	0.76	0.53
Chlorhexidine	0.98	(0.98–0.99)	0.93	0.9	0.85	0.74
Refrigeration	0.98	(0.98–0.99)	0.94	0.91	0.85	0.73
Thaw
1 thaw
On ice	0.99	(0.99–1)	0.96	0.94	0.89	0.76
In refrigerator	0.99	(0.99–0.99)	0.94	0.92	0.86	0.74
At room temp.	0.99	(0.99–1)	0.94	0.92	0.85	0.73
4 thaws
On ice	0.99	(0.99–0.99)	0.95	0.93	0.86	0.76
In refrigerator	0.99	(0.99–1)	0.94	0.92	0.87	0.74
At room temp.	0.99	(0.99–0.99)	0.95	0.93	0.87	0.73