INS and rheumatoid arthritis: In addition to lipid profile, it was shown that fasting serum glucose and serum insulin levels in early untreated rheumatoid arthritis patients are higher than those of the patients in the matched control group (12).This altered glucose metabolism can accelerate atherosclerosis in RA patients (8).On the other hand, MTX, used as a DMARD, can evidently increase glucose uptake and lipid oxidation in skeletal muscle (13).