- var_dump: documentation ( source)
<?php
foreach(array('<p><span><a href=""><img src="some.jpg"></a></span></p>',
'<p>Text text text<span><a href=""><img src="some.jpg"></a></span></p>',
'<p><span>Text text text<a href=""><img src="some.jpg"></a></span></p>') as $html)
{
$dom=new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML($html);
$xpath=new DOMXPath($dom);
var_dump($xpath->query('//img[string-length(//text())<=0]')->length);
}