Park JW, Yang PS, Bae HJ, et al. - Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients were examined for the 5-year change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in relation to medical therapy and catheter ablation. Among 1,963 patients who underwent AF catheter ablation and 14,056 with AF under medical therapy in the National Health Insurance Service database, 571 with AF catheter ablation (59±10 years old, 72.3% male, and 66.5% paroxysmal AF) were compared with 1,713 with medical therapy after 1:3 propensity-score matching. Outcomes revealed significantly improved renal function over a 5-year follow-up in correlation with AF catheter ablation, especially in patients maintaining sinus rhythm without preexisting diabetes mellitus. In AF patients, an association between impaired renal function and an atrial structural remodeling was observed, however, there appeared no influence of the impaired renal function on the rhythm outcome of AF catheter ablation.