Objective: To describe vaginal support levels according to the DeLancey’s classification, their appearance in transversal magnetic resonance images and clinical categories caused by their defects. Design: Review. Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, Pra- gue; Department of Radiodiagnostics, Charles University, Medical Faculty in Hradec Králové. Methods: A review of literature, examinations of female pelvis with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 3 dimensional computer reconstructions were made. Results: We performed 20 MRI studies and 5 computer spatial reconstructions of female pelvis. Selected results of a review of literature and our MRI examinations were correlated with various types of vaginal descensus. Conclusions: The questions about the supporting structures of female vagina are still not fully answered. Great advance was achieved by some recent pathological studies and by the introduc- tion of modern magnetic resonance units in this field. The DeLancey’s classification goes well in accord with clinical examination, imaging methods and cadaver studies.

        Key words: vagina, anatomy, magnetic resonance, female, modeling, cystocele