Fig. 1.

Overview of the experimental strategy applied in this study comprising of the following steps: (1) representative selection of samples from each of the studied sample classes (SLE subgroups) based on available clinical and personal sample descriptors with the application of multivariate characterization and DOE approach; (2) application of the same strategy for subdivision of samples in the representative analytical batches; (3) chemical analysis of samples; (4) OPLS modeling of samples in each batch respectively to the question of the study; (5) averaging of the OPLS p(corr) vectors from all batches to obtain combined metabolic profile