One hundred RA patients with active disease (DAS28 \>/=3.2), duration of symptoms less than 2 years, and are disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug naive will participate in this 5-year prospective, hospital-based, open-label, randomized, controlled trial.
All participants will receive 1-year tight-control treatment. One hundred patients will be randomly assigned to two arms. Treatment will be adjusted according to a standardized protocol every 3-monthly aiming at remission defined by the 2011 ACR/EULAR definition (Group 1, n=50, simplified disease activity score \[SDAI\] ≤3.3) or minimal disease activity (Group 2, n=50, DAS28\<2.6). A follow up visit will be conducted at the 5th year to evulate long term effect on vascular outcomes between the two groups.
