Abstract: Objective  To evaluate the value of applying serum protein fingerprinting technology for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients. Methods  Sputum cultures identified 70 cases positive for  Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 35 cases were multidrug-resistant and were classified as group A, 35 non drug-resistant cases were classified as group B, 35 healthy volunteers were classified as group C. Groups B and C were used as comparative control groups,  utilizing surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry(SELDI-TOF-MS) and protein chips to examine serum proteins. Ciphergen protein chip 3.2.1 software is then used to analyze protein peak values and carry out statistical analysis. Results  Based on the comparison of protein chip data between MDR-TB groups and controls, 4 protein peak showed significant deviations (P＜0.01). m/z (mass to charge ratio)for 1369 and 3400 showed low expression while those for 8700 and 22 794  showed high expression. Their sensitivities are 77.1%（27/35），71.4%（25/35），80.0%（28/35），74.3%（26/35）, respectively, specificity were 72.9%（51/70），74.3%（52/70），75.7%（53/70），81.4%（57/70）, respectively, all possess statistical significance (All P＜0.01; χ²=23.7，20.2，29.6，31.0，respectively). Conclusion  Serum protein fingerprinting technology is easy, fast, and uses small sample sizes. It has the potential to become the new diagnostic standard for MDR-TB.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary/diagnosis, Tuberculosis, multidrugresistant/diagnosis, Blood proteins, Proteomics