Does the time between collecting and processing umbilical cord blood samples affect the quality of the sample?

Objective: To assess the association between the time from umbilical cord blood collection until processing and the quality of the sample.

Methods: Umbilical cord blood samples collected during the third stage of labor were placed in temperature-controlled boxes for the transport of biological material and sent to an umbilical cord blood bank, where the number of nucleated cells, viable cells and CD34+ cells were counted, and samples were additionally tested for contamination at the following time intervals: up to 24 hours, up to 48 hours and up to 72 hours following sampling. Data were analyzed using the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and compared using McNemar's χ2 test.