There are provided transmission means (1) for transmitting an ultrasonic
signal from a surface of a skin of a subject toward a blood vessel (21)
of the subject, reception means (3) for receiving a reflected ultrasonic
echo and converting the ultrasonic echo into an electric signal to obtain
the ultrasonic echo signal in a depth direction from the surface of the
skin, movement detection means (5) for analyzing a phase of the
ultrasonic echo signal in a direction traversing the blood vessel to
calculate a movement amount in each of a plurality of regions including a
blood vessel wall and a vicinity of the blood vessel wall, analysis means
(7) for analyzing a state of the blood vessel based on a variation in the
calculated movement amount in each of the regions, boundary position
detection means (8) for detecting a boundary position between the blood
vessel wall and a blood flow region of the blood vessel based on a result
of the analysis by the analysis means, and stability judgment means (15)
for comparing the detected boundary position with a detection result in a
previous cycle.