Metabolic phenotyping involves the comprehensive analysis of biological fluids or tissue samples. This analysis allows biochemical classification of a person's physiological or pathological states that relate to disease diagnosis or prognosis at the individual level and to disease risk factors at the population level. These approaches are currently being implemented in hospital environments and in regional phenotyping centres worldwide. The ultimate aim of such work is to generate information on patient biology using techniques such as patient stratification to better inform clinicians on factors that will enhance diagnosis or the choice of therapy. There have been many reports of direct applications of metabolic phenotyping in a clinical setting.