To evaluate validity of biochemical diagnostic methods of fetal hypoxia.A case-control study.Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Martin, Slovak Republic.We included 67 patients, and they were retrospectively divided into group of controls (n=36), and studied group (n=31) according to pH in umbilical artery (UA) 12 mmol/l. Postpartal lactate concentration in umbilical vein (UV) and UA was determined with lactatemeter Accutrend Lactate, Roche Diagnostics, Switzerland. Quantitative assessment of fetal human protein S100B was provided with ELISA (Sangtec 100 ELISA, DiaSorin Inc., Stillwater, Minnesota, USA). Fetal erythropoietin concentration in UV was examined with immunoenzymatic assessment Access EPO (Beckman Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, CA, USA).histograms, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann-Whitney test, Spearman's rho; statistical significance: p0.9) for lactate in UA, good accuracy (AUC>0.7) had EPO in UV. Results for protein S100B were not significant. The highest sensitivity had EPO in UV, while the highest specificity has had lactate in UA.An indisputable evidence of labor management quality is the fetal metabolic status. On the basis of our results, the suitable clinical markers are lactate and EPO, in addition to acid-base parameters.