The Role of Metabolomics in Understanding Hypertension: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This review will identify metabolites showing consistent hypertension associations and document methodological requirements for clinical translation, including standardization of sample collection, analytical platforms, and data processing. The findings will inform longitudinal validation studies and establish evidence-based pathways for potential applications in hypertension risk assessment and clinical trial design. Validation of consistently identified metabolite-hypertension associations in independent, prospective cohorts will be critical for establishing causality and assessing the temporal stability of metabolomic signatures. The review will also identify methodological gaps requiring standardization, such as sample collection protocols, analytical platform harmonization, and data processing procedures, which must be addressed before metabolomic findings can be translated into clinical applications.