摘要AIM: To study the metabolic profiling of serum samples from compensated and decompensated cirrhosis patients.METHODS: A pilot metabolic profiling study was conducted using three groups: compensated cirrhosis patients (n = 30), decompensated cirrhosis patients (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 30). A 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics approach was used to obtain the serum metabolic profiles of the samples. The acquired data were processed by multivariate principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). RESULTS: The OPLS-DA model was capable of distinguishing between decompensated and compensated cirrhosis patients, with an R2Y of 0.784 and a Q2Y of 0.598. Twelve metabolites, such as pyruvate, phenylalanine and succinate, were identified as the most influential factors for the difference between the two groups. The validation of the diagnosis prediction showed that the accuracy of the OPLSDA model was 85% (17/20). CONCLUSION: 1H NMR spectra combined with pattern recognition analysis techniques offer a new way to diagnose compensated and decompensated cirrhosis in the future.