Conclusions
Involving a small sample size of 100 AF patients and utilizing the high-resolution cerebral DWI technique, the present Reduce-IT study reveals a similar periprocedural incidence of SCE between AF patients undergoing catheter ablation with the HPSD strategy using the STSF catheter and those employing the conventional approach with the ST catheter. Meanwhile, lesion metrics, including average lesion count, maximum lesion diameter, and total lesion volume, also exhibited no significant differences between the two groups. To further verify these findings, future large-scale, multi-center, randomized studies are warranted.