Objective To investigate the relations between serum adiponectin and coronary artery calcification score (CACS) and to find the risk factors for coronary artery calcification in maintenance hemodialysis(MHD) patients.Methods Twenty-seven MHD patients(MHD group) and 13 healthy persons (control group) were enrolled in this study.The serum adiponectin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method.CACS was calculated by multi-row spiral CT.The circulating parameters such as hemoglobin (Hb),calcium,phosphate,calcium-phosphate product,intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH),total cholesterol (TC),low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C),albumin (Alb),high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP),and so on were detected.Results The level of serum adiponectin in MHD group [(15.00 ± 7.47) mg/L] was significantly higher than that in control group [(2.07 ± 0.83) mg/L],and there was significant difference (P＜ 0.01).Coronary artery calcification(CACS ＞ 0 score) was observed in 88.9％ (24/27) in MHD group and 10/13 in control group.The mean CACS in MHD group was significantly higher than that in control group [655 (0-3 570) scores vs.126 (0-731)scores],and there was significant difference (P ＜ 0.05).Eleven MHD patients and 1 healthy person had severe coronary artery calcifications,(CACS ≥ 400 scores).There was significan t difference in dialysis duration,diastolic pressure,phosphate calcium-phosphate product and adiponectin (P ＜ 0.05 or ＜ 0.01).Spearman analysis showed that CACS of MHD patients was positively correlated with dialysis duration,phosphate,calcium-phosphate product,serum creatinine and adiponectin (P ＜ 0.01 or ＜ 0.05).Only calcium-phosphate product remained as independent predictor of CACS in multivariate analysis (P ＜0.01).Conclusion Coronary artery calcification is common in MHD patients and which is correlated with dialysis duration,serum phosphate,calcium-phosphate product,serum creatinine and adiponectin.