Wang Y, Pan Y, Li H, et al. - According to this exploratory post-hoc analysis of the THALES trial, patients with a moderate ischemic stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 4 to 5) benefited consistently from ticagrelor plus aspirin vs aspirin alone, compared to patients with a less severe ischemic stroke, with no additional risk of intracranial bleeding or other severe bleeding events.

• In total, 3,312 patients had a moderate stroke and 6,671 had a less severe stroke.

• One thousand two hundred ninety-three (39.0%) of those in the moderate stroke group were female, with a mean (SD) age of 64.5 (10.8) years; 2,518 (37.7%) of those in the less severe stroke group were female, with a mean (SD) age of 64.8 (11.2) years.

• Patients with moderate stroke had a primary outcome event rate of 7.6% (129 of 1,671) in the ticagrelor group and 9.1% (150 of 1,641) in the placebo group; patients with less severe stroke had a primary outcome event rate of 4.7% (158 of 3,359) in the ticagrelor group and 5.7% (190 of 3,312) in the placebo group.

• In patients with moderate stroke, severe bleeding occurred in 8 patients (0.5%) in the ticagrelor group and 4 patients (0.2%) in the placebo group, compared with 16 patients (0.5%) and 3 patients (0.1%) in the less severe stroke groups, respectively.