Patent ID: 8267864

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a probe that transmits/receives ultrasonic waves to/from a test subject; a transmitting section that supplies a drive signal to the probe; a receiving section that receives a reflection echo signal outputted from the probe; an image constructing section that reconstructs a diagnostic image on the basis of the received reflection echo signal; a display section that displays the diagnostic image constructed by the image constructing section; a control section that controls these sections; and a judging section configured to judge whether the probe has been left in the air based on comparison of a predetermined image obtained with the probe being left in the air to the diagnostic image information which is reconstructed from the image constructing section when the probe transmits/receives ultrasonic waves, wherein, when the judging unit judges that the probe is left in the air, the control section controls the drive signals supplied to the probe from the transmitting section so as to lengthen a time from when reception of the reflection echo signal of one frame of the diagnostic image is completed to a time when transmission of the ultrasonic wave of the next frame is started, thereby reducing the frame rate to a value that is lower than an ordinary frame rate.