Patent ID: 7871380

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: tomographic image acquisition means for transmitting ultrasonic waves from a probe to a body being examined and receiving the reflection echo signal corresponding to the transmission of the ultrasonic waves to obtain a tomographic image; elastic image acquisition means having a first acquisition mode for determining a tissue elasticity amount of a biomedical tissue of the body being examined on the basis of the reflection echo signal to acquire an elastic image; and display means for displaying at least the elastic image, characterized in that the elastic image acquisition means further has a second acquisition mode, and the elastic image acquired in the second acquisition mode is different in image quality from the elastic image acquired in the first acquisition mode, wherein the elastic image acquisition means is configured so that the image quality of the elastic image based on the second acquisition mode is reduced to be less than the image quality of the elastic image based on the first acquisition mode, and wherein the elastic image acquisition means is configured so that the frame rate of the elastic image acquired in the second acquisition mode is higher than the frame rate of the elastic image acquired in the first acquisition mode.