Objective To examine the levels of serum tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase in severe sepsis patients with disseminated intra-vascular coagulation (DIC) and evaluate its diagnostic value in severe sepsis with DIC.Methods Sixty patients were divided into 3 groups,namely severe sepsis group (SS group,n =28),severe sepsis with DIC group (SSD group,n =12) and normal group (n =20).Clinical data including APACHE Ⅱ score and DIC score of these patients were collected.Serum levels of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 of these patients were measured by using ELISA.Results The patients of SS group had higher levels of TIMP-1 (723.74 ± 96.27) and lower levels of TIMP-2 (68.08 ± 14.87) than healthy control subjects (TIMP-1:574.24 ± 79.99,TIMP-2:89.99 ± 18.45) (P ＜ 0.05).The patients of SSD group had higher levels of TIMP-1 (907.56 ± 200.20) and lower levels of TIMP-2 (44.84 ± 22.13) than patients of SS group (P ＜ 0.05).An association was found between TIMP-1 and fibrinogen (FIB) (r =-0.392,P ＜ 0.05),TIMP-1 and D-dimer (r =0.407,P ＜ 0.05),TIMP-2 and PLT (r =0.484,P ＜0.01),TIMP-2 and PCT (r=-0.523,P＜0.01),TIMP-2 and DIC score (r=-0.579,P＜0.01).The areas under the curves (AUC) for TIMP-1/TIMP-2 was 0.896 (95％ CI:0.843 ～ 0.950 (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Serum levels of TIMP-1 in patients with severe sepsis complicated with DIC increased and TIMP-2 decreased,suggesting they were valuable in diagnosis of severe sepsis complicated with DIC.