2.2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria
The studies included fulfilled the following criteria: (1) Cohort study, case-control study, cross-sectional study, or randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in patients with age≥18, with paroxysmal and/or persistent AF undergoing initial catheter ablation; (2) comparison between HPSD RFA and conventional RFA; (3) studies must meet the following for each ablation strategy: HPSD settings: Power≥40 W, with ablation duration of 5 to 15s per site including the posterior wall; Conventional settings: Power≤35 W, duration>10 s for any ablation; (4) reported outcome data including but not limited to procedure time, freedom from atrial arrhythmia, total complications, redo-ablation procedure;(5) the follow-up duration was at least 6 months.
The exclusion criteria were as follows: (1) conference abstracts, case reports, review articles, meta-analysis, editorials or non-English articles;(2) an equivocal study design or group allocation.