Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40164463›Full record

Trial reportCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2025

Ticagrelor Compared to Clopidogrel in Acute Coronary Syndromes trial (TC4): a Bayesian pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial.

Stephen A Kutcher, Nandini Dendukuri, Sonny Dandona, Lyne Nadeau, James M Brophy

Registry-linked trialAbstract readComparative StudyPragmatic Clinical TrialRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04057300 (Ticagrelor Compared to Clopidogrel in Acute Coronary Syndromes - the TC4 Comparative Effectiveness Study), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT04057300 phase4completednot on this map

Ticagrelor Compared to Clopidogrel in Acute Coronary Syndromes - the TC4 Comparative Effectiveness Study

TypeinterventionalSponsorMcGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health CentreRan2018 to 2023Enrolled1,038ConditionsAcute Coronary SyndromeArmsTicagrelor 90mg, Clopidogrel 75mg, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) 81mg
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Stephen A KutcherDepartment of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health (Kutcher, Brophy), McGill University; Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (Dendukuri, Nadeau, Brophy), McGill University Health Centre Research Institute; Department of Medicine (Dendukuri, Dandona, Brophy), McGill University, Montréal, Que.
Nandini DendukuriDepartment of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health (Kutcher, Brophy), McGill University; Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (Dendukuri, Nadeau, Brophy), McGill University Health Centre Research Institute; Department of Medicine (Dendukuri, Dandona, Brophy), McGill University, Montréal, Que.
Sonny DandonaDepartment of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health (Kutcher, Brophy), McGill University; Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (Dendukuri, Nadeau, Brophy), McGill University Health Centre Research Institute; Department of Medicine (Dendukuri, Dandona, Brophy), McGill University, Montréal, Que.
Lyne NadeauDepartment of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health (Kutcher, Brophy), McGill University; Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (Dendukuri, Nadeau, Brophy), McGill University Health Centre Research Institute; Department of Medicine (Dendukuri, Dandona, Brophy), McGill University, Montréal, Que.
James M BrophyDepartment of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health (Kutcher, Brophy), McGill University; Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (Dendukuri, Nadeau, Brophy), McGill University Health Centre Research Institute; Department of Medicine (Dendukuri, Dandona, Brophy), McGill University, Montréal, Que. james.brophy@mcgill.ca.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDual antiplatelet therapy is the standard of care for acute coronary syndrome, but uncertainty exists regarding the optimal regimen for patients in North America. We sought to compare the effectiveness and safety of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and ticagrelor or clopidogrel in patients with acute coronary syndrome from a single tertiary academic centre in Montréal, Canada.

methodsWe conducted a pragmatic, open-label, time-clustered (bimonthly between October 2018 and March 2021), randomized controlled trial. The primary effectiveness end point was a composite of all-cause mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or ischemic stroke. The primary safety end point was hospital admissions for bleeding. We ascertained 12-month outcomes from the Quebec universal electronic health databases. We designed and analyzed the study within a Bayesian paradigm to supplement existing knowledge. The primary analysis was a Bayesian logistic regression model with an informed focused prior from previously randomly assigned North American patients. Robustness was evaluated with vague and other prespecified informative priors, spanning reasonable pre-existing beliefs. We defined clinically important benefits and harms as risk reductions exceeding a 10% difference.

resultsWe randomly assigned 1005 patients with acute coronary syndrome to ticagrelor (

interpretationWhether we analyzed this trial with a vague or a range of reasonable informed priors, we found no strong evidence for the superiority of ticagrelor over clopidogrel in North American patients. Current guidelines favouring ticagrelor over clopidogrel might take this new evidence into future consideration.

trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov no. NCT04057300.

Indexed as

Acute Coronary SyndromeAspirinClopidogrelPlatelet Aggregation InhibitorsTicagrelorAgedBayes TheoremFemaleHemorrhageHumansMaleMiddle AgedMyocardial InfarctionQuebecAspirinClopidogrelPlatelet Aggregation InhibitorsTicagrelor

Identifiers

PMID40164463
PMCPMC11957720

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.