At baseline in all RA subjects and controls as well as 3-hours after the single injection of anakinra in RA subjects, we assessed by means of echocardiography the following parameters a) the LV dimensions,fractional shortening and wall motion score index (WMSI) b) the systolic (Sm), early diastolic (Em) and late diastolic (Am) myocardial velocities of the mitral annulus by using of tissue Doppler (TDI) as well as the ratio of E wave of the mitral inflow measured by pulsed wave Doppler to the mean Em as an index of LV diastolic filling pressures c) the LV longitudinal, circumferential and radial strain and strain rate, as well as Global Longitudinal strain and Torsion using speckle tracking echocardiography d) the coronary flow reserve (CFR)after adenosine infusion to assess coronary vasomotor function e) the flow-mediated endothelial-dependent dilation of the brachial artery (FMD) to assess peripheral endothelial function f) the diameters of aorta at systole and diastole to calculate the aortic strain as an index of local aortic properties. At the same time periods, we measured in blood samples a) nitrotyrosine (NT), protein carbonyls (PC)and malondialdehyde(MDA)to assess nitrooxidative stress b)soluble Fas and Fas-ligand )to assess apoptosis c) interleukin-1b and tumor necrosis factor-a to assess inflammation