TABLE 1.

Half-life and percentage loss of pathogen-specific amplification targets in different types of clinical specimens

Pathogen	Specimen type	No. of days stored	Half-life (no. of days)			% loss of target after 2 weeks
			RT	4°C	−80°C	RT	4°C	−80°C
N. meningitidis	EDTA blood	16				No loss	No loss	No loss
CMV	Serum	16	<1	2	3	79.7 ± 5	50 ± 10	36.9 ± 12
	EDTA blood	16				No loss	No loss	No loss
Human enterovirus	CSF	16	9			82.1 ± 9	No loss	No loss
Influenza A	Nasopharyngeal aspirates	14	6	6	10	74 ± 23	70 ± 25	66 ± 27