Patent ID: 7708692

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a transmitting section for driving an ultrasonic probe that sends out an ultrasonic transmitted wave toward a body tissue of an organism; a receiving section for receiving an ultrasonic reflected wave through the ultrasonic probe, the ultrasonic reflected wave being produced by getting the ultrasonic transmitted wave reflected by the body tissue; a phase detecting section for detecting the phase of the ultrasonic reflected wave; and a computing section for calculating the magnitudes of positional displacement at a plurality of measuring points inside the body tissue, wherein each measuring point is spaced apart in a depth direction with respect to a surface of the body tissue relative to each other measuring point, based on a signal obtained by the phase detecting section and also figuring out an elastic property between two of the measuring points based on the magnitudes of positional displacement, wherein the body tissue is a circulatory organ, wherein the computing section figures out the maximum and minimum values of thicknesses or thickness variations between the two points based on the magnitudes of positional displacement at the two points during a measuring period set as a predetermined partial period shorter than one cardiac cycle of the organism, calculates a greatest thickness difference between the maximum and minimum thickness or thickness variations, receives information about a blood pressure value of the organism and also calculates the elastic property based on the greatest thickness difference and the blood pressure value, and wherein the partial period of the one cardiac cycle is set in sync with a biomedical signal obtained from the organism.