According to one embodiment, a ultrasonic transmission/reception unit transmits/receives ultrasonic waves to/from a subject through the ultrasonic probe and generates an echo signal relating to a scan surface. An image generation unit generates an ultrasonic image relating to the scan surface based on the echo signal. A filter executes filter processing with respect to the ultrasonic image and extracts image constituent elements. A feature information generation unit generates feature information indicative of an amount of change in number of the extracted image constituent elements with respect to a change in characteristics of the filter.
