Table 1: Characteristics of the 4 included studies.

Reference Year Country Study design Specimen Method H. pylori (+) in epilepsy group (%) H. pylori (+) in control group (%) H. pylori (+) in epilepsy classification P value
Asadi-Pooya 2012 Iran Case-control Breath 13C-UBT 35/62 (56.45%) 14/33 (42.42%) IGE: 21/34; TLE: 14/28
The difference was not significant (P = 0.3)
0.3
Okuda 2004 Japan Case-control Serum ELISA 19/75 (25.33%) 5/71 (7.04%) IGE: 9/22; ILE: 10/53
The difference was not significant
< 0.05
Ozturk 2007 Turkey Case-control Serum ELISA 37/47 (78.72%) 13/35 (37.14%) Poor prognosis: 18/24
Good prognosis: 19/23
The difference was not significant (P > 0.05)
< 0.001
Razak 2012 Malaysia Case-control Breath 13C-UBT 18/48 (37.50% 17/47 -36.17%) Generalised epilepsy: 5/19
Partial epilepsy: 13/29
The difference was not significant
0.893

H.pylori- Helicobacter pylori; IGE- idiopathic generalized epilepsy; TLE- temporal lobe epilepsy; ILE- idiopathic localization-related epilepsy; ELISA- enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; 13C-UBT- 13C urea breath test.