Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of serum albumin (Alb),total protein (TP),body mass index (BMI),Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and hand strength in the nutritional status in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients.Methods A total of 126 MHD patients were included in this study who had been on MHD for at least 3 months.Depending on the levels of Alb,patients were divided into two groups:normal nutrition group (group A) and malnutrition group (group B).TP,BMI,MNA and hand strength were also detected at the same time.Independent samples t test,Spearman correlation analysis,ROC curve were used to analyze their difference between the two groups and evaluate their diagnostic value in nutritional status in MHD patients.Results Age,sex,height,weight and dialysis ages had no statistical significant difference (P ＞ 0.05) between group A and group B,while Alb,TP,BMI,MNA and hand strength had statistical significant difference (P ＜ 0.05) between two groups.After adjusting for age,sex and hemodialysis age,Alb,TP,BMI,MNA and hand strength were positively correlated with each other (P ＜ 0.05).Since the area under the ROC curve of BMI was the smallest,BMI had the lowest diagnostic value in evaluation of the nutritional status in those patients.Conclusions Alb,TP,MNA and hand strength are good indexes in evaluation of the nutritional status in MHD patients but BMI is not.