What Measura actually measures
Measura is a suite of roughly fifteen assessments, not a single test. Here is what each group of them is actually looking at, and what question it answers that the others cannot.
The most common misunderstanding about this testing is that it is one thing with one result. It is not. It is a deliberate assembly of measurements chosen because each one sees something the others are blind to, and because reading them together resolves questions that none of them settles alone.
Group one: how blood is reaching the tissue
Four measurements, all taken from the same cuffs and optical sensors in one twenty-minute study.
- Ankle-brachial and toe-brachial index — the pressure arriving at the ankle and the toe, relative to the arm.
- Pulse volume recording — the shape of the pulse arriving in the limb, which stays honest when a calcified artery makes the pressure reading lie.
- Pulse waveform analysis — the contour of the pulse in the smallest vessels, measured with light.
- Arterial stiffness and endothelial markers — how rigid the vessel wall is and how well its lining responds.
Group two: whether the nerves are working
This group is the one most often missing from a conventional workup, and it is where the earliest findings usually are.
- Sudomotor testing — the function of the smallest, unmyelinated nerve fibers, measured through the sweat glands they control.
- Autonomic function studies — whether the involuntary nervous system still adjusts heart rate and blood pressure appropriately.
- Heart rate variability — how much flexibility the system has, beat to beat.
- Cardiac autonomic reflex tests — the standardized challenges that ask each branch a specific question.
Group three: metabolism and body structure
- Body composition — how much of your weight is muscle, fat and water.
- Measured metabolic rate — the energy you actually burn at rest, and which fuel you are predominantly using.
- Laboratory panels — insulin alongside glucose, inflammatory markers, lipid particles, thyroid, and nutrient status.
Group four: balance and cognition
- Vestibular and balance testing — inner ear and eye movement function, and objective fall risk.
- Cognitive screening — a structured baseline that a future score can be compared against.
What it does not measure
It is not imaging. It does not show you a picture of an artery, a disc or a joint. It does not replace an echocardiogram, a nerve conduction study, a CT scan or a specialist consultation where those are indicated. And it does not measure anything about your genes unless a specific panel is ordered for a specific reason.
Why the combination is the point
An abnormal sudomotor result with a low vitamin B12 points somewhere quite specific. The same abnormal sudomotor result with a raised hemoglobin A1c points somewhere else entirely. A normal ankle-brachial index with a damped waveform means something different from a normal index with a normal waveform. None of those distinctions is available from a single measurement.
That is why the report is read as a whole, with a clinician, rather than sent as a list of numbers. How to read your report.
Related reading
Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, medical director of Measura. Last reviewed .