Objective To study the situation of ampicillin resistance of haemophilus influenzae(HI) and to explore the resistant manchnism of HI by polymerase chain reaction.Methods Fifty-five strains of HI isolated from sputum specimens and throat swabs of children were collected to detect beta-lactamase.TEM-1 and ROB-1 beta-lactamase genes were detected by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and nucleotide sequencing.ResultsBeta-lactamase was produced in 17 strains out of 55 strain of HI.Moreover it has ampicillin resistant.The rate of ampicillin resistance was 30.9% in HI.No beta-lactamase-negative ampicillin resistant HI was identified.100% of the beta-lactamase-positive strains gave a positive result with specific primers for the TEM-1 gene.None strain was detected for the ROB-1 gene with in 32 strains cilstrains in beta-lactamase-positive strains and 15 strains in bata-lactmase-negarive strains.ConclusionHI isolated from children with lower respiratory tract infection would be a major pathogen,and ampicillin resistant in HI was rather high.The resistance mechanism of ampicillin resistant HI was caused by beta-lactamase,mainly plasmid mediated TEM-1 type enzyme.