An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: a transmitting section for driving an ultrasonic probe that sends out an ultrasonic transmitted wave toward a vital tissue; a receiving section for amplifying an ultrasonic reflected wave, produced by getting the ultrasonic transmitted wave reflected by the vital tissue and then received at the ultrasonic probe, to generate a received signal; a reference point shift measuring section for measuring the magnitude of shift of a reference point that has been set on the received signal; a received signal adjusting section for adjusting the position of the received signal in a distance direction according to the magnitude of shift of the reference point; and a shape variation calculating section for determining the magnitudes of positional displacements at multiple measuring points that have been set in the vital tissue by the received signal adjusted.