Functional, Neurological, and Lab Testing After a Car Accident

It is a set of standardized measurements of how your injury affects your body: range of motion in degrees, muscle strength, sensation, reflexes, specific provocative tests, and validated disability questionnaires. It turns your symptoms into objective, trackable findings.

The Neck Disability Index (NDI) is a validated 10-item questionnaire about how neck pain affects activities such as reading, driving, work, sleep, and concentration. It is scored from 0 to 50 and often reported as a percentage. Higher scores mean greater disability, and repeat scores track recovery.

The Oswestry Disability Index is the most widely used questionnaire for low back pain disability. It covers pain intensity, personal care, lifting, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, social life, and travel, scored from 0 to 100%.

Not everyone does. Your physician may order labs to check for blood loss, muscle breakdown after a severe muscle injury, inflammation or infection, kidney function before contrast or certain medications, or bleeding risk before an injection.

Re-testing shows objectively whether treatment is working. Improving range of motion, strength, and disability scores confirm progress; persistent deficits may prompt more imaging, nerve testing, injections, or a specialist referral.

When another driver caused the accident, their insurance covers medically necessary evaluation and testing. Accident Care bills the insurance directly, so there is zero upfront out-of-pocket cost to you.

It measures how far a joint or your spine can move, in degrees, using a goniometer or inclinometer. Results are compared with your other side and with typical values, then re-measured to track recovery.

With a hand dynamometer that records force in kilograms. Both hands are tested, usually several times. Your dominant hand is typically somewhat stronger, so a large difference or a drop over time can indicate injury.

It asks you to rate your pain from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst imaginable). It is simple but validated, and a change of about 2 points, or about 30%, is generally considered clinically meaningful.

Reflexes check the circuit between a nerve root, the spinal cord, and a muscle. A reduced reflex can point to a specific pinched nerve root, while brisk reflexes and signs such as a Hoffmann or Babinski sign can indicate spinal cord involvement.

Your physician gently extends and rotates your neck toward the painful side and applies light downward pressure. Reproduction of pain radiating into the arm suggests cervical radiculopathy. The test is highly specific, meaning a positive result is a strong clue.

While you lie on your back, your straightened leg is raised. Pain radiating below the knee, usually between about 30 and 70 degrees, suggests tension on a lower lumbar or sacral nerve root, often from a disc herniation.

MMI is the point at which your condition has stabilized and further significant improvement is not expected with additional treatment. Objective measurements over time are how physicians document that you have reached it.

Your Accident Care physicians and our licensed Doctors of Physical Therapy perform and document these measurements at your evaluation and follow-up visits.