Patent ID: 8858438

Claim:
An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising: an ultrasound probe which outputs a transmission ultrasound to a subject, and which acquires a received signal based on a reflected ultrasound received from the subject; an image generating section which generates original image data based on the received signal acquired by said ultrasound probe; an output image generating section which generates output image data that has a predetermined output size by performing an image size changing process on the original image data generated by said image generating section; a comparison image generating section which generates comparison image data by changing an image size corresponding to the output image data generated by said output image generating section so that an image size corresponding to the comparison image data is identical to an image size corresponding to the original image data generated by said image generating section; an image correction section which: (i) compares the original image data generated by said image generating section with the comparison image data generated by said comparison image generating section on a pixel-by-pixel basis, and (ii) corrects the output image data generated by said output image generating section such that a difference between pixels of the comparison image data generated by said comparison image generating section and pixels of the original image data generated by said image generating section approaches zero; and a control section which, based on a predetermined frame rate of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus for displaying the output image data, sets a number of times: (i) the generation of the comparison image data by said comparison image generating section, (ii) the comparison between the original image data and the generated comparison image data by said image correction section, and (iii) the correction of the output image data by said image correction section, are repeated, wherein the predetermined frame rate is set based on predetermined transmission/reception conditions of ultrasound including at least one of a depth of a focus point and a number of emissions of a transmission beam, and wherein the control section repeats the generation, the comparison, and the correction for the set number of times.