Objective: Liver failure is a most emergent clinic complication which leads to the highest mortality around the world, but the etiology of liver failure is still mysterious.Methods: A metabonomic study using ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF MS) was performed to investigate the metabolic alterations in the serum samples from liver failure patients induced by hepatitis B virus (n =40) and healthy subjects (n =25).