diff --git a/mod/item.php b/mod/item.php
index a28cc90d1b..5befa8c01a 100644
--- a/mod/item.php
+++ b/mod/item.php
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 				intval($parent_item['contact-id']),
 				intval($uid)
 			);
-			if(count($r))
+			if (dbm::is_result($r))
 				$parent_contact = $r[0];
 
 			// If the contact id doesn't fit with the contact, then set the contact to null
@@ -176,13 +176,13 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 	$extid       = ((x($_REQUEST,'extid'))       ? strip_tags($_REQUEST['extid'])  : '');
 
 	// Check for multiple posts with the same message id (when the post was created via API)
-	if (($message_id != "") AND ($profile_uid != 0)) {
+	if (($message_id != '') AND ($profile_uid != 0)) {
 		$r = q("SELECT * FROM `item` WHERE `uri` = '%s' AND `uid` = %d LIMIT 1",
 			dbesc($message_id),
 			intval($profile_uid)
 		);
 
-                if(count($r)) {
+		if (dbm::is_result($r)) {
 			logger("Message with URI ".$message_id." already exists for user ".$profile_uid, LOGGER_DEBUG);
 			return;
 		}
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 	$r = q("SELECT * FROM `user` WHERE `uid` = %d LIMIT 1",
 		intval($profile_uid)
 	);
-	if(count($r))
+	if (dbm::is_result($r))
 		$user = $r[0];
 
 	if($orig_post) {
@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	if(count($r)) {
+	if (dbm::is_result($r)) {
 		$author = $r[0];
 		$contact_id = $author['id'];
 	}
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 		$r = q("SELECT * FROM `contact` WHERE `uid` = %d AND `self` = 1 LIMIT 1",
 			intval($profile_uid)
 		);
-		if(count($r))
+		if (dbm::is_result($r))
 			$contact_record = $r[0];
 	}
 
@@ -495,7 +495,7 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 					intval($profile_uid),
 					intval($attach)
 				);
-				if(count($r)) {
+				if (dbm::is_result($r)) {
 					$r = q("UPDATE `attach` SET `allow_cid` = '%s', `allow_gid` = '%s', `deny_cid` = '%s', `deny_gid` = '%s'
 						WHERE `uid` = %d AND `id` = %d",
 						dbesc($str_contact_allow),
@@ -636,7 +636,7 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 				intval($profile_uid),
 				intval($mtch)
 			);
-			if(count($r)) {
+			if (dbm::is_result($r)) {
 				if(strlen($attachments))
 					$attachments .= ',';
 				$attachments .= '[attach]href="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/attach/' . $r[0]['id'] . '" length="' . $r[0]['filesize'] . '" type="' . $r[0]['filetype'] . '" title="' . (($r[0]['filename']) ? $r[0]['filename'] : '') . '"[/attach]';
@@ -1028,11 +1028,11 @@ function item_post(&$a) {
 		unset($arr['category']);
 		unset($arr['jsreload']);
 
-		if (in_array($arr['type'], array("net-comment", "wall-comment")))
+		if (in_array($arr['type'], array("net-comment", "wall-comment"))) {
 			$arr['type'] = 'remote-comment';
-		elseif ($arr['type'] == 'wall')
+		} elseif ($arr['type'] == 'wall') {
 			$arr['type'] = 'remote';
-
+		}
 		add_shadow_entry($arr);
 	}