Sir,

We value the comments made by Broadway et al in response to our article. We recognise that by choosing highly selected glaucoma patients with photographically pure features of differing optic disc morphology, potential clues to the pathogenesis of the glaucoma may be found.1 However, the fact remains that our data would suggest that in clinical practice the morphological appearance of the optic disc is not particularly helpful in determining the underlying mechanisms responsible for the glaucomatous atrophy.2

Clearly, further study is required. It will be interesting to see whether specific gene defects will be linked to the differing optic disc morphology in chronic glaucoma.