Patent ID: 7991454

Claim:
A method comprising: injecting a refraction contrast agent into blood vessels that increases a difference in refractive indices of material inside the blood vessels and material outside of the blood vessels with respect to a penetrating radiation having a wavelength of 1 nm or less; irradiating portions of the blood vessels and adjacent regions outside of the blood vessels with a penetrating radiation having a wavelength of 1 nm or less; generating an image of the portions of the blood vessels based on detected radiation, the image showing boundaries of the portions of the blood vessels that are generated based on refraction of the radiation near the boundaries; and enhancing the boundaries in the image by using the refraction contrast agent to enhance refraction of the radiation near the boundaries such that the image shows the boundaries of both a portion of a first blood vessel and a second blood vessel in which the portion of the first blood vessel is completely behind the second blood vessel relative to a source of the radiation.