Purpose: Evaluate the diagnostic value of specific methods of investigation for the early diagnosis of patients with optic neuritis (ON).

Methods: 75 patients with ON were included into the study. Everyone were examined using static perimetry, optical coherence tomography of the optic nerve and thickness of peripapillary nerve fiber layer, visual evoked potentials to flash and pattern types.

Results. In the early stage of defining the method was static perimetry (sensitivity 94 %), followed in descending order VEP and OCT (sensitivity 87 % and 84 %) and MRI of the brain and orbits (sensitivity 82 %).

Conclusion: VEP, static perimetry, MRI of the brain and orbits, as well as OCT allow establishing inflammation of the optic nerve at the early stages of the disease. Complex application of these methods revealed ON to 97 % of cases.