Dr.KarenChen said:

A defensible baseline is short: HbA1c and fasting glucose, a lipid panel with ApoB if you can get it, ALT and AST, creatinine with eGFR, TSH, ferritin…

I read this differently from Dr.KarenChen, on substance rather than tone. I would drop the "get everything" instinct further than this thread does. Every extra test is another chance at a false positive, and incidental findings have their own cost in scans, biopsies and worry.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. Because it is glucose-dependent, this class carries a low intrinsic hypoglycaemia risk on its own — the risk arrives when it is combined with insulin or a sulfonylurea, which usually need reducing.

Ask again with the specifics and you will get a better answer than this one.

HPLC_Greg said:

I would drop the "get everything" instinct further than this thread does.

Adding the part of the answer the thread has not reached. HbA1c reflects roughly three months of average glycaemia weighted toward the most recent weeks, which is why repeating it at six weeks tells you very little. The improvement on this class comes from two directions — direct glucose-dependent insulin secretion and glucagon suppression, plus the indirect effect of weight loss on insulin sensitivity — and the second continues after the first has plateaued.

I would rather be corrected than agreed with, if it comes to it.

A narrower follow-up, since the general answer is now clear:

What actually belongs on a baseline panel, as opposed to the enormous list that gets pasted around here?

Reporting back.

Took the whole panel in rather than the one flagged line, and the conversation lasted two minutes instead of generating three more tests.