Aim To investigate the expression and clinical significance of Long chain non coding RNA TUG1 (LncRNA TUG1) and microRNA 138-5p(miR-138-5p) in plasma of patients with chronic heart failure(CHF). Methods The expression of LncRNA TUG1 and miR-138-5p in plasma of 148 patients with coronary heart disease complicated with chronic heart failure (CHF group) and 40 healthy persons (control group) were detected by real-time quantitative PCR. The correlation between the expression of TUG1 and miR-138-5p and clinical parameters was analyzed. ROC curves were used to analyze the potential of TUG1 and microRNA-138-5p for early diagnosis of CHF. Kaplan Meier survival analysis was used to analyze the effects of TUG1 and miR-138-5p on the 2-year survival rate of CHF. Results Compared with the control group, the expression of TUG1 and BNP in the plasma of patients with chronic heart failure was significantly higher (P<0.001), while the expression of microRNA-138-5p in the plasma of patients with chronic heart failure was significantly lower (P<0.05). The expression of TUG1 was positively correlated with the expression of BNP in serum of CHF patients (r=0.682, P<0.001), but negatively correlated with the expression of microRNA-138-5p and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (P<0.05). The area under curve (AUC) of LncRNA TUG1 as a biomarker for the diagnosis of chronic heart failure was 0.868 (95% CI 0.590~0.960, P<0.001). The area under curve (AUC) of microRNA-138-5p as a biomarker for the diagnosis of chronic heart failure was 0.607 (95% CI 0.620~0.940,P<0.001).Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the 2-year median survival time of patients with high expression of LncRNA TUG1 was shorter than that of patients with low expression, and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=19.77, P<0.001). The median 2-year survival time of patients with high expression of microRNA-138-5p was longer than that of patients with low expression, with significant difference (χ²=11.97, P<0.001). The high expression of TUG1 in plasma of patients with chronic heart failure is related to the diagnosis and prognosis of CHF. Conclusion The high expression of TUG1 in patients with chronic heart failure is negatively correlated with the expression of miR-138-5p, which can be used as a biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of CHF.