• Antoinette de Waha, Sigrid Sandner, Moritz von Scheidt, Andreas Boening, Katharina Koch-Buettner, Dieter Hammel, Rainer Hambrecht, Bernhard C Danner, Friedrich A Schöndube, Gerold Goerlach, Theodor Fischlein, Michael Schmoeckel, Martin Oberhoffer, Rainer Schulz, Thomas Walther, Tibor Ziegelhöffer, Christoph Knosalla, Felix Schönrath, Friedhelm Beyersdorf, Matthias Siepe, Tim Attmann, Martin Misfeld, Friedrich-Wilhelm Mohr, Hans-Hinrich Sievers, Alexander Joost, Leon M Putman, Günther Laufer, Christian Hamm, Uwe Zeymer, Adnan Kastrati, Peter W Radke, Rüdiger Lange, Jochen Cremer, and Heribert Schunkert.
• German Heart Center Munich, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany; DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research), and partner site Munich Heart Alliance, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: dewaha@dhm.mhn.de.
• Am. Heart J. 2016 Sep 1; 179: 69-76.

BackgroundFor patients with coronary artery disease undergoing coronary bypass surgery, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) currently represents the gold standard of antiplatelet treatment. However, adverse cardiovascular event rates in the first year after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) still exceed 10%. Graft failure, which is predominantly mediated by platelet aggregation, has been identified as a major contributing factor in this context. Therefore, intensified platelet inhibition is likely to be beneficial. Ticagrelor, an oral, reversibly binding and direct-acting P2Y12 receptor antagonist, provides a rapid, competent, and consistent platelet inhibition and has shown beneficial results compared with clopidogrel in the subset of patients undergoing bypass surgery in a large previous trial.HypothesisTicagrelor is superior to ASA for the prevention of major cardiovascular events within 1 year after CABG.Study DesignThe TiCAB trial (NCT01755520) is a multicenter, phase III, double-blind, double-dummy, randomized trial comparing ticagrelor with ASA for the prevention of major cardiovascular events within 12 months after CABG. Patients undergoing CABG will be randomized in a 1:1 fashion to either ticagrelor 90 mg twice daily or ASA 100 mg once daily. The study medication will be started within 24 hours after surgery and maintained for 12 months. The primary end point is the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, and repeat revascularization at 12 months after CABG. The sample size is based on an expected event rate of 13% of the primary end point within the first 12 months after randomization in the control group, a 2-sided α level of .0492 (to preserve the overall significance level of .05 after planned interim analysis), a power of 0.80%, 2-sided testing, and an expected relative risk of 0.775 in the active group compared with the control group and a dropout rate of 2%. According to power calculations based on a superiority design for ticagrelor, it is estimated that 3,850 patients should be enrolled.SummaryThere is clinical equipoise on the issue of optimal platelet inhibition after CABG. The TiCAB trial will provide a pivotal comparison of the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor compared with ASA after CABG.Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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