No you can't use faked items
By changing index you're not changing an effect of this item.
Changed index working only with imperial mixing..
And about searching.. if index is changed you still can do it very easy..
If someone really changed index of all items, i'm pretty sure that he just added some numbers.. so after small medicine still is medium medicine! and it's the same thing with all items.
So when you changing slots just search increased/decreased value by 1

I'm sure it's working almost on all pservers
greetz Fritz xD