Table 1.

Main characteristics of included studies.

Author	Country	Index tests	Definition of reference standards	No of patients
Archimandritis et al.22	Greece	Rapid urease test	Positive histology	72
Bravo Paredes et al.23	Peru	Rapid urease test	Positive histology	93
Castro-Fernandez et al.24	Spain	Rapid urease test	Assumed 100% infection	120
Castro-Fernandez et al.25	Spain	Rapid urease test, histology	Positive at least one of the followings: rapid urease test and histology or urea breath test	173
Chandrasakha et al. 26	Thailand	Polymerase chain reaction, rapid urease test, histology, culture	Positive culture or a positive rapid urease test and histology	64
Choi et al.27	Korea	Culture, rapid urease test, histology	Positive culture or any two of the followings: rapid urease test, histology, serology	157
Chung et al.28	Korea	Histology, rapid urease test, urea breath test, serology	At least two positive of the followings: rapid urease test, histology, urea breath test, serology	32
Chung et al.29	Korea	Polymerase chain reaction	Positive in two of the followings: histology, rapid urease test, serology	170
Colin et al.30	France	Rapid urease test, histology, culture	Positive serology	182
Demiray et al.31	Turkey	Stool antigen test	Positive urea breath test or histology and/or rapid urease test	22
Garcia-Diaz et al.32	Spain	Serology	Positive in for at least one of the followings: rapid urease test, histology, culture or urea breath test	214
Gisbert et al.34	Spain	Stool antigen test	Positive rapid urease test or histology or urea breath test	34
Gisbert et al.33	Spain	Urea breath test	Positive urea breath test	131
Grino et al.35	Spain	Rapid urease test, urea breath test serology, histology	Positive histology or positive serology and urea breath test	78
Grino et al.36	Spain	Stool antigen test, rapid urease test, histology, urea breath test, serology	Positive histology or positive two of the followings: rapid urease test, serology, urea breath test	68
Hanvivatong et al.37	Taiwan	Stool antigen test, urea breath test serology, rapid urease test, histology	Positive culture or two of histology, rapid urease test, serology, urea breath test	56
Lahmidani et al.38	Marocco	Rapid urease test	Positive histology	116
Lee et al.39	Taiwan	Rapid urease test	Positive culture or histology	55
Lee et al.40	Taiwan	Rapid urease test	Positive urea breath test	116
Liao et al.41	China	Rapid urease test, histology, urea breath test	At least two positive of the followings: rapid urease test, histology, urea breath test	57
Lin et al.42	Taiwan	Stool antigen test	Positive culture or positive histology and rapid urease test	93
Lin et al.43	Taiwan	Polymerase chain reaction	Positive culture or positive histology and rapid urease test	88
Lo et al.44	Taiwan	Polymerase chain reaction, rapid urease test, histology, culture, serology, urea breath test	Positive culture or at least three of the followings: rapid urease test, histology, urea breath test, serology	55
López Peñas et al.45	Spain	Stool antigen test, rapid urease test, histology, urea breath test, serology	Positive in at least two of the followings: rapid urease test, histology, serology, urea breath test	32
Manguso et al.46	Italy	Serology, culture, rapid urease test, histology	Positive culture or positive rapid urease test and histology	80
Pascual et al.47	Spain	Rapid urease test, histology	Positive rapid urease test or histology or urea breath test	73
Peitz et al.48	Germany	Stool antigen test	Positive culture or positive rapid urease test and histology	114
Peitz et al.49	Germany	Serology	Positive culture or positive rapid urease test and histology	106
Ramírez-Lázaro et al.50	Spain	Histology	Positive polymerase chain reaction	52
Romero Gómez et al.51	Spain	Rapid urease test, histology, culture	Positive culture or positive rapid urease test and histology	55
Saez et al.52	Spain	Polymerase chain reaction	Positive culture or at least two of the followings: histology, rapid urease test, stool antigen test, urea breath test	79
Shilling et al.53	Germany	Rapid urease test	Positive histology and urea breath test	96
Sfarti et al.54	Romania	Urea breath test	Positive urea breath test	39
Tang et al.55	Taiwan	Rapid urease test	Positive histology	324
Tu et al.12	Taiwan	Rapid urease test, culture, histology, urea breath test, serology	Positive histology and culture or any two of the followings: rapid urease test, urea breath test, serology	77
van Leerdam et al.56	The Netherlands	Stool antigen test	Positive culture or histology and rapid urease test	36
Velayos et al.57	Spain	Urea breath test	Positive histology or rapid urease test or urea breath test	70
Wildner-Christensen et al.58	Denmark	Rapid urease test, urea breath test, serology	Positive histology	95
Winiarski et al.59	Poland	Urea breath test	Positive serology	81
Wong et al.60	Japan	Serology	Positive rapid urease test or culture or histology	59