Rosuvastatin in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RORA)

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients will be selected from a high risk population of hospital clinic attendees, defined as RA greater than 5 years' disease duration, and all will be RA latex seropositive or IgM RF ELISA \>14iu/ml. The subjects will be of either sex and \>40 years of age. * Patients should have both tender and swollen joint counts \>4 each and either a CRP \>10mg/l, ESR \>25mm/h or PV \>1.78. * Patients on cyclosporine or other medications known to be contraindicated with this form of drug will not be enrolled. Exclusion Criteria: * The patient's hospital and general practice records will be scrutinised for evidence of symptomatic vascular disease. * Any patient not free from vascular disease symptoms will be excluded. * In addition to evidence of symptomatic vascular disease (either previous or current), the exclusion criteria consist also of those already taking lipid-lowering therapy or those with contraindications to these therapies. * Also excluded will be subjects with a total cholesterol level of \>7.5mmol/L as it might be argued that such patients merit primary prevention on the basis of dyslipidemia alone.