Abstract: Objective To explore the expression levels of high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs CRP), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the peripheral blood of patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) and the predictive efficacy of various clinical factors for infection. 
Methods A total of 100 patients undergoing MHD admitted to our hospital were selected and divided into infection group (n=30) and non-infection group (n=70) according to occurrence of vascular access infection during hospitalization. The expression levels of hs-CRP, MCP-1 and IL-6 in peripheral blood of the patients were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the general clinical data were statistically analyzed. The risk factors of clinical infection were confirmed by multivariate Logistic regression analysis, and the predictive efficacy of hs-CRP, MCP-1 and IL-6 for infection was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. 
Results Compared with the non-infection group, the expression levels of serum hs-CRP, MCP-1 and IL-6 in the infection group were significantly higher (P＜0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age＞60 years, duration of dialysis >1 year, hs-CRP, MCP-1, IL-6, combined diabetes and decreased serum albumin were risk factors for infection. ROC analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of serum hs-CRP, MCP-1, and IL-6 was 0.815, 0.770, and 0.806, respectively, the sensitivity was 68.10%, 72.80%, 82.00%, respectively, and the specificity was 79.60%, 72.70%, and 74.09%, respectively. The AUC of the combination of the three was 0.935, and the sensitivity and specificity were 83.80% and 92.91%, respectively, and the predictive performance was significantly improved (Z=2.373). 
Conclusion The high expressions of serum hs-CRP, MCP-1 and IL-6 in patients undergoing MHD are risk factors for infection. The combined use of hs-CRP, MCP-1 and IL-6 in serum has a significant predictive value for infection in patients undergoing MHD. 

Key words: hemodialysis, infections, risk factors