Objective To explore the relationships between serum insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) level and children with tourette syndrome, and the significance of IGF-1 level for the diagnosis of tourette syndrome.Methods Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was adopted to detect the serum level of IGF-1 and S100B of 53 children patients with tourette syndrome and 53 children with physical examination.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the cut-off value and assess the sensitivity,specificity and diagnostic efficiency.Results The concentration of IGF-1 was significantly lower in the children with tourette syndrome group than in normal group ((41.51±4.23) μg/L vs.(69.04±5.26) μg/ L,t=29.693,P＜0.01),and the concentration of S100B was significantly higher in the children with tourette syndrome group than in normal group((129.48±9.54) ng/L vs.(81.37±8.42) ng/L,t =27.526,P＜0.01) .When 59.28 and 93.35 ng/mL ware used as cut-off value, the sensitivity, specificity and area under curve for IGF-1 in diagnosis of children with tourette syndrome were 89.6％, 96.4％ and 0.931, respectively.The sensitivity,specificity and area under curve for S100B in diagnosis of children with tourette syndrome were 94.1％, 91.3％ and 0.969, respectively.And the diagnostic efficiency of IGF-1 was similar to that of S100B.Conclusion IGF-1 may play an important role in the development of tourette syndrome.Detection of IGF-1 in the serum is helpful in the diagnosis of children with tourette syndrome.