Summary of the ISEV workshop on extracellular vesicles as disease biomarkers, held in Birmingham, UK, during December 2017

Figures & data

Figure 1. Workshop topic areas and some highlighted problems.

Table 1. NBDA top ten reasons for the failure in developing effective biomarkers [2].

1	Poor access to rigorously annotated, fit-for-purpose biospecimens from stringently phenotyped sources
2	Insufficient control of pre-analytical parameters
3	Low reproducibility of academic publications
4	Incomplete understanding of physiology
5	Variable analytical standards
6	Idiosyncratic laboratory-specific analytical methods
7	Small studies lacking statistical power
8	Chaotic data reporting formats and poor database interoperability
9	Poor compliance on reporting standards by scientific journals
10	Poor to non-existent quality management systems

Table 2. Factors relevant for biospecimen variability during blood collection/handling/storage.

1. Tourniquet vs. none	2. Tourniquet time
3. Central line or artery vs. peripheral vein	4. Draw order
5. Temperature and duration of storage	6. Tube type
7. Tube volume^a	8. Tube inversions
9. Vacuum tube, butterfly vs. syringe^a	10. Type of anticoagulant
11. Type of port (if used for access)	12. Total time of draw
13. Number of centrifugations^a	14. Needle bore
15. Time to centrifugation^a	16. Centrifuge speed^a
17. Tube agitation during transport^a

^a Indicates where data exist for impact on EVs [4–10].

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