Fig. 8: The exRNAQC study represents the most comprehensive analysis of pre-analytical variables in the context of exRNA profiling.

The heatmap shows studies (raw data and references in Supplementary Data 1) evaluating pre-analytical variables based on both mRNA and miRNA (top part), miRNA only (middle part) and mRNA only (bottom part). The numbers in brackets after the column names indicate the scale range. The darker the coloring, the more items were studied. Studies marked with a solid black circle evaluate interactions between pre-analytical variables. The exRNAQC study outperforms previous studies analyzing pre-analytical variables impacting exRNA analyzes in terms of the combination of evaluated metrics and shows uniqueness by studying the impact on both miRNA and mRNA.