Introduction: 3D T1-weighted contrast-enhanced MRA (CE-MRA) is routinely used for non-invasive evaluation of the thoracic aorta. However, competing demands of high spatial resolution and fast (breath-hold) acquisition often preclude ECG-gating, leading to motion artifact at the aortic root. ECG-gated CE-MRA is feasible, but acquires 1 partition per heart beat with standard Cartesian acquisition, prolonging scan time due to wasted “dead” time prior to the next cardiac cycle, often exceeding breath-hold capabilities. We evaluate an ECG-gated CE-MRA sequence that utilizes alternative Cartesian k-space sampling whereby adjacent ky and kz points are acquired in a zigzag pattern per heart beat (Fig 1) to improve scanning efficiency and co-ordinate contrast timing with optimal cardiac phase acquisition, and compare it to our standard clinical gated CE-MRA technique.