Zend_Db help

[Kudose]

Can someone please tell me why this works with PEAR:😃B

$parentSQL= $SD_DB->query("SELECT id, parent FROM ".DB_PREFIX."categories WHERE name='".dbPrepare($_PAGEVARS[0])."' LIMIT 1");
    $result = $parentSQL->fetchRow($parentSQL, DB_FETCHMODE_ASSOC);

But with Zend_Db, this does not

$result = $SD_DB->fetchAssoc("SELECT id, parent FROM ".DB_PREFIX."categories WHERE name=:name LIMIT 1", array('name' => dbPrepare($_PAGEVARS[0])));

$result is empty.

Also, how do I check if the query succeeded? None of the examples I can find seem to do any testing.

TIA!