Take care about how to use XMLReader::$isElementEmpty. I don't know if it is a bug or not, but $isElementEmpty is set for the current context and NOT just for the element. If you move your cursor to an attribute, $isElementEmpty will ALWAYS be false.
<?php
$xml = new XMLReader();
$xml->XML('<tag attr="value" />');
$xml->read();
var_dump($xml->isEmptyElement);
$xml->moveToNextAttribute();
var_dump($xml->isEmptyElement);
?>
will output
(bool) true
(bool) false
So be sure to store $isEmptyElement before moving the cursor.