During the optimisation of the QIAGEN method, once the initial
nail input was increased to a weight of 0.01 g or greater, full
profiles were obtained in 80/95 (84%) of extractions across all wash
conditions and extraction durations, with the least complete
profiles occurring for the longer washes and longer digestion
times. As a result, the 0.5 h digestion and no wash conditions were
selected for the final optimised QIAGEN method as these led to
high levels of profile completeness and were the most time
efficient parameters.