ULTRASONIC MEASUREMENT APPARATUS AND ULTRASONIC MEASUREMENT METHOD

The invention relates to an ultrasonic measurement apparatus and an ultrasonic measurement method. In the ultrasonic measurement apparatus, an ultrasonic sensor transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a blood vessel and receives a reflected wave. Then, in a processing unit of a main device, an ultrasonic measurement control section, a respiratory fluctuation component separation section, and a respiratory rate calculation section analyze the displacement of a vascular wall in a depth direction from the body surface using a received signal of the reflected wave, and detect the number of breaths per unit time using the analysis result. The unit time may be one minute or one second, for example.