Patent ID: 8512248

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a transmitting section configured to drive an ultrasonic probe that sends out first and second ultrasonic transmitted waves toward a vital tissue; a receiving section configured to amplify ultrasonic reflected waves, produced by getting the first and second ultrasonic transmitted waves reflected by the vital tissue and then received at the ultrasonic probe, to generate first and second received signals which correspond to the first and second ultrasonic transmitted waves, respectively; a reference point shift measuring section configured to measure the magnitude of shift of a reference point that has been set on the first received signal, the magnitude of shift of the reference point being measured between the first and second received signals along a distance direction; a received signal adjusting section configured to generate a third received signal by adjusting the position of the second received signal in a distance direction according to the magnitude of shift of the reference point such that the reference point in the third received signal is located at the same depth in the vital tissue as set in the first received signal; and a shape variation calculating section configured to determine magnitudes of positional displacements at multiple measuring points that have been set in the vital tissue, wherein the positional displacements are displacements of the measuring points between the first received signal and the third received signal.