150 consecutive RA patients followed at the Rheumatology clinic of the Prince of Wales Hospital will be recruited for this double-blind, randomized, placebo-control trial. Patients were matched to 150 controls on the basis of age (within 5 years), sex, body mass index (+/-5Kg) and ethnicity for the cross sectional study on the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis. Controls were healthy individuals recruited from the same community who underwent similar imaging protocols of the IMT and PWV assessments.