Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Brisk reflexes
HP:0001348
What it means
Tendon reflexes that are noticeably more active than usual (conventionally denoted 3+ on clinical examination). Brisk reflexes may or may not indicate a neurological lesion. They are distinguished from hyperreflexia by the fact that hyerreflexia is characterized by hyperactive repeating (clonic) reflexes, which are considered to be always abnormal.
Rare diseases that can present with this29
Common30–79%
18- Adult-onset autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia
- Autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2W
- Autosomal dominant dopa-responsive dystonia
- Autosomal dominant spastic paraplegia type 4
- Autosomal recessive ataxia due to ubiquinone deficiency
- Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia with late-onset spasticity
- Autosomal recessive cerebelloparenchymal disorder type 3
- Autosomal recessive dopa-responsive dystonia
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 43
- Focal stiff limb syndrome
- Juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Mitochondrial DNA-related progressive external ophthalmoplegia
- Paraplegia-intellectual disability-hyperkeratosis syndrome
- Poliomyelitis
- Progressive encephalopathy-severe neurodegeneration-lipodystrophy syndrome
- Spastic paraplegia-precocious puberty syndrome
- X-linked sideroblastic anemia and spinocerebellar ataxia
- X-linked spastic paraplegia type 34
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Brisk deep tendon reflexes
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.