Diagnostic imaging in cervical incompetence

Cervical incompetence is defined as an abnormal dilatation of the cervical canal at the body-neck junction with no pain or blood loss and in the absence of uterine contractile activity. Cervical incompetence is the frequent cause of abortion in the second trimester and premature delivery, with adverse fetal prognosis. Usually, three causative factors are considered: traumatic, constitutional, dysfunctional. While in multiparous women the medical and remote obstetric history poses the diagnostic suspicion, in primigravidae, in the absence of previous risk factors (traumas, malformations, etc) early diagnosis may allow prompt treatment with a better prognosis. Hysterosalpingographic (tunnel-shaped cervix or appearing as an inverted sac, diameter of internal uterine orifice) but especially sonographic findings (cervical length, dilated endocervical canal, tunnel- shaped internal uterine orifice, herniation of the amniotic sac into the endocervical canal) represent the most significant rad...