Table 1.

Comparison of different diagnostic strategies.

Diagnostic strategy		Advantage	Disadvantage
Non-invasive examinations	Urea breath test (UBT)	Easy to operate, low technical requirements for testers, high compliance	Patients taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or H2RA may impact the accuracy of the results
	Stool antigen test (SAT)	Easily operated without oral administration of reagents and long-term sample collection cooperation	Storage, transport, and handling of fecal samples may influence the results
	Serological	No effect on gastric bleeding, PPIs, bismuth, and antibiotics	A positive serum test for antibodies cannot serve as the basis for ongoing infection
Invasive examinations	Endoscopy	Gastric pathology is evident	Accuracy and specificity of results vary considerably
	Histology	Higher sensitivity and specificity than those of the UBT and RUT	The abilities of observers have a significant impact on the analysis of results
	Culture	Extremely high specificity	Culture times are longer and the quality of culture conditions affects the results
	Rapid urease test (RUT)	Quick, easy, and accurate	Bacterial density and morphology in biopsies may affect the results
	Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)	Automated, simple, accurate, rapid, and efficient	Contaminated samples or samples containing PCR blockers affect the accuracy of the results