Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Dysmetria
Lack of coordination of movement
HP:0001310
What it means
A type of ataxia characterized by the inability to carry out movements with the correct range and motion across the plane of more than one joint related to incorrect estimation of the distances required for targeted movements.
Dysmetria can result in moving beyond the target (hypermetria) or failing to reach the target (hypometria) during a voluntary movement. Dysmetria can be assessed clinically by the finger chase test, whereby the examiner and the proband are sitting, and the examiner suddenly moves his or her finger five times in an unpredictable direction in a frontal plane, with movements having an amplitude of about 30 cm and a frequency of once every two seconds. The proband is asked to follow the movements with his or her index finger. The test is abnormal if the proband substantially under- or overshoots or cannot perform pointing movements at all. The finger-nose-finger test is similar, and the proband is asked to alternately touch his or her own nose and then to point to the finger of the examiner.
Rare diseases that can present with this66
Very common80–99%
5Common30–79%
38- 6q terminal deletion syndrome
- 7q11.23microduplication syndrome
- Adult-onset autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia
- Ataxia-telangiectasia-like disorder
- Ataxia with vitamin E deficiency
- Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia due to CWF19L1 deficiency
- Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia-pyramidal signs-nystagmus-oculomotor apraxia syndrome
- Autosomal recessive congenital cerebellar ataxia due to MGLUR1 deficiency
- Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay
- Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia with leukoencephalopathy
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 35
- Autosomal spastic paraplegia type 58
- Cerebellar ataxia with neuropathy and bilateral vestibular areflexia syndrome
- Childhood-onset autosomal recessive slowly progressive spinocerebellar ataxia
- Dentatorubral pallidoluysian atrophy
- Early-onset spastic ataxia-myoclonic epilepsy-neuropathy syndrome
- Friedreich ataxia
- Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy due to TECPR2 mutation
- Infantile multisystem neurologic-endocrine-pancreatic disease
- Infantile-onset autosomal recessive nonprogressive cerebellar ataxia
- Maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 4 syndrome
- Medulloblastoma
- Mitochondrial myopathy-cerebellar ataxia-pigmentary retinopathy syndrome
- Neurodevelopmental delay-seizures-ophthalmic anomalies-osteopenia-cerebellar atrophy syndrome
- Non-progressive cerebellar ataxia with intellectual disability
- Paraneoplastic sensory ganglionopathy
- RARS-related autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy
- Recessive mitochondrial ataxia syndrome
- Spectrin-associated autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 10
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 18
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 23
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 35
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 36
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 40
- Spinocerebellar ataxia with epilepsy
- Tremor-ataxia-central hypomyelination syndrome
- X-linked progressive cerebellar ataxia
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: Abnormal finger chase test · Abnormal finger-nose-finger test
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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.