Patent ID: 8157734

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a transmission and reception unit configured to transmit a first ultrasonic pulse and an ultrasonic pulse set including a plurality of second ultrasonic pulses corresponding to a number of ensembles on one scan line, and to receive a first echo signal corresponding to the first ultrasonic pulse and an echo signal set corresponding to the ultrasonic pulse set from an object; a blood flow image generating unit configured to generate a blood flow image based on the first echo signals corresponding to a plurality of scan lines by processing including auto-correlation processing; a Doppler spectrum image generating unit configured to generate a Doppler spectrum image based on the echo signal set; a caution outputting unit configured to output caution information when a real frame rate of the blood flow images, which has been higher than a first predetermined frame rate, becomes equal to lower than the first predetermined frame rate; and a scanning sequence setting unit configured to set up a first scanning sequence, including a first number of ensembles of the number of ensembles, for displaying the blood flow image and the Doppler spectrum image simultaneously substantially with mutual transmission and reception of the ultrasonic pulse set and the second ultrasonic pulse signal, and to alter the first scanning sequence to a second scanning sequence including a second number of ensembles which is smaller than the first number of ensembles when a real frame rate of the blood flow images, which has been higher than a second predetermined frame rate, which is lower than the first predetermined frame rate, becomes equal to or lower than the second predetermined frame rate, wherein the caution outputting unit outputs the caution information before the scanning sequence setting unit alters the scanning sequences when the real frame rate has decreased.