A practical guide to metabolomic profiling as a discovery tool for human heart disease

► Metabolomics aims to measure all the small molecules in a cell, tissue or biofluid. ► The two commonest techniques involve NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. ► In cardiac research metabolomics is used for biomarker discovery and functional genomics. ► Applications include coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and ischaemia.