Table 1.

Characteristics of the included studies.

Source	Study design	Region	Identification of   relief	Number of patients		Mean ages  (years)	Daily dosage		Duration
				Male	Female		RAB 20 mg	OME 20 mg
Dekkers et al. (1999) [7]	DB, RCT	Europe, 27 centers	Endoscopy, heartburn symptom	126	76	53	100	102	8 weeks
Delchier et al. (2000) [12]	DB, RCT	Europe, 50 centers	Endoscopy, heartburn symptom	87	120	54	104	103	8 weeks
Adachi et al. (2003) [13]	DB, RCT	Japan, 6 centers	Endoscopy, heartburn symptom	30	30	66	30	30	8 weeks
Pace et al. (2005) [14]	DB, RCT	Italy, 71 centers	Endoscopy, heartburn symptom	374	175	47	277	272	8 weeks
Bytzer et al. (2006) [15]	DB, RCT	Europe, 49 centers	Heartburn symptom	374	343	51	358	359	1 week
Pilotto et al. (2007) [16]	Unblind, RCT	Italy, 1 center	Endoscopy, heartburn symptom	81	79	77	80	80	8 weeks

DB: double-blind; RCT: randomized clinical trial; RAB: rabeprazole; OME: omeprazole.