Sodium polyanetholesulfonate in the identification of Gardnerella vaginalis.

With respect to paragraph 6 of Dr. L0vborg's letter, the solid phase was blocked with BSA and Tween as described. The assessment of the plates did not occur in only a few experiments. We worked with the Nunc plates using the complete ELISA procedure as described for many months before evaluating other types of plates. Finally, the view held by Dr. L0vborg in paragraph 3 that detergent is a weak blocking molecule is open to question. Kenny and colleagues (1) have shown that the detergents Tween and Triton are stronger competitive blockers than BSA. We feel that Dr. L0vborg's comments are unfounded in light of the misunderstanding of the use of the term "PBST."