How a testing plan is chosen
Nobody has all fifteen assessments. The panel is built backwards from the question you actually came in with.
It starts with a conversation, not a booking
The first step is working out what question you want answered. That sounds obvious and it is routinely skipped, which is how people end up with a folder of results that does not address the thing that worried them.
The common starting questions and what they call for
| What you came in with | What is measured |
|---|---|
| Burning, numb or insensate feet | Sudomotor testing, the vascular study with toe index, laboratory panel including glycemic and B12 markers |
| Cramping in the legs when walking | Ankle-brachial and toe index, pulse volume recording, arterial stiffness |
| Dizziness, unsteadiness or a fall | Balance battery, autonomic and orthostatic testing, cognitive screen |
| Fatigue, palpitations, exercise intolerance | Heart rate variability, reflex battery, pulse waveform analysis |
| Weight that will not move, or a stalled plan | Measured metabolic rate, body composition, insulin and glycemic markers |
| No symptoms, but in the risk group | The core panel: vascular study, sudomotor, autonomic, body composition, laboratory |
What gets added regardless
Height, weight, waist measurement, blood pressure, pulse and oxygen saturation are taken every time, because everything else is interpreted against them. So is the medication and supplement list, which is not administrative box-ticking — several common drug classes change what these measurements show.
What gets left out deliberately
Ordering a panel because it exists is how people end up with an incidental abnormality that generates work and answers nothing. Autoimmune and genomic panels in particular are ordered for a specific clinical question or not at all.
How the plan changes on the day
Sometimes it does. If a vascular study comes back with a strikingly asymmetric result, adding the toe index on both sides matters more than whatever was next on the list. If a metabolic rate measurement is invalidated because someone forgot and had coffee, it is rescheduled rather than reported. The plan is a starting point.
Related reading
Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, medical director of Measura. Last reviewed .