PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To generate an acoustic velocity map minimizing an influence of such structures as blood vessels, as much as possible in a short time.SOLUTION: A region 112 of interest is set on a B mode image 110 displayed on a display unit. Ultrasonic waves are transmitted and received in a Doppler scan mode to generate color Doppler information in the region 112 of interest. A region excluding a moving object region 117 in the region 112 of interest is determined as an acoustic velocity measurement region 119 on the basis of the color Doppler information. A plurality of promotion focal points 125 are set in the acoustic velocity measurement region 119 to transmit/receive ultrasonic waves, and RF data corresponding to the acoustic velocity measurement region 119 are generated. A local acoustic velocity value is calculated based on the RF data corresponding to the acoustic velocity measurement region 119 so as to generate an acoustic velocity map of the acoustic velocity measurement region 119.COPYRIGHT: (C)2014,JPO&INPIT【課題】血管等の構造物の影響を極力抑えた音速マップの生成を短時間で行う。【解決手段】表示部に表示されているBモード画像110上に着目領域112を設定する。ドプラ走査モードで超音波の送受信を実行して、着目領域112内のカラードプラ情報を生成する。カラードプラ情報に基づき、着目領域112内における運動体領域117を除いた領域を音速測定領域119として決定する。音速測定領域119内に複数の昇進焦点125を設定して超音波の送受信を行い、音速測定領域119に対応するRFデータを生成する。音速測定領域119に対応するRFデータに基づき局所音速値を算出することで、音速測定領域119の音速マップを生成する。【選択図】図9
