Patent ID: 7474778

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: an ultrasound probe in which a plurality of transducer elements for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave to/from an object to be examined two-dimensionally arranged; transducer element selecting means for selecting a transducer element to be used in ultrasound transmission and reception; a signal processing unit for applying a delay time to a received wave signal received by the selected transducer element and performing signal processing; an image processing unit for generating an image on the basis of a signal output by the signal processing unit; and an image display unit for displaying the generated image, wherein the image processing unit includes storing means for storing a first ultrasound image obtained by a scan performed with a first transducer arrangement selected by the transducer element selecting means and a second ultrasound image obtained by a scan performed with a second transducer arrangement selected by the transducer element selecting means so as to irradiate an ultrasound beam in a different direction than a beam direction of the first transducer arrangement, and image calculating means for combining the first ultrasound image and the second ultrasound image.